Sense of agency
October 18, 2026
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How the feeling of causing an action is built from prediction, selection, feedback and inference, and why felt control is not the same as actual control
Research-led explanations of human capacity, learning and technological change. Start with the foundations, then follow the evidence and related ideas as the Learning Hub grows.
How the feeling of causing an action is built from prediction, selection, feedback and inference, and why felt control is not the same as actual control
A child receives clear vision after an early cataract is removed. Another child has always seen clearly. Both now have the same light entering their…
A person lifts a cup that is unexpectedly empty. The hand rises too quickly, then corrects. Before the lift, the nervous system had prepared for a…
How perception becomes more precise through learning, attention, and repeated contact, and why sensory information must be interpreted without being romanticized.
How specific perceptual skills can improve with practice, and why transfer to everyday life must be tested.
How sensory signals become usable perception, why context and attention matter, and where diagnostic claims exceed evidence.
Calling attention, judgment, agency and relational capacity “infrastructure” can correct a serious public blind spot. It can also invite measurement, management and coercion into parts of human life that should not become institutional property.
At an airport checkpoint, an officer must decide whether a faint shape on a scan is a prohibited object or ordinary clutter. Missing a real object and…
A nurse sees a patient’s oxygen reading, hears a change in breathing, and knows that the next few minutes may require a response. A number on a screen is…
Situation modification changes features of an already entered situation in order to alter its emotional trajectory. It includes changing the environment, task, timing, interaction or available support, and is distinct from both choosing a different situation and changing the meaning assigned to the same one.