Jens Kürten, M.Sc.

• [ 2024 ]
• [ 2023 ]
• [ 2022 ]

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  Gutzeit, J., Weller, L., Muth, F., Kürten, J., & Huestegge, L. (2024). Eye did this! Sense of agency in eye movements. Acta Psychologica, 243, 104121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104121
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  This study investigates the sense of agency (SoA) for saccades with implicit and explicit agency measures. In two eye tracking experiments, participants moved their eyes towards on-screen stimuli that subsequently changed color. Participants then either reproduced the temporal interval between saccade and color-change (Experiment 1) or reported the time points of these events with an auditory Libet clock (Experiment 2) to measure temporal binding effects as implicit indices of SoA. Participants were either made to believe to exert control over the color change or not (agency manipulation). Explicit ratings indicated that the manipulation of causal beliefs and hence agency was successful. However, temporal binding was only evident for caused effects, and only when a sufficiently sensitive procedure was used (auditory Libet clock). This suggests a feebler connection between temporal binding and SoA than previously proposed. The results also provide evidence for a relatively fast acquisition of sense of agency for previously never experienced types of action-effect associations. This indicates that the underlying processes of action control may be rooted in more intricate and adaptable cognitive models than previously thought. Oculomotor SoA as addressed in the present study presumably represents an important cognitive foundation of gaze-based social interaction (social sense of agency) or gaze-based human-machine interaction scenarios. Public significance statement In this study, sense of agency for eye movements in the non-social domain is investigated in detail, using both explicit and implicit measures. Therefore, it offers novel and specific insights into comprehending sense of agency concerning effects induced by eye movements, as well as broader insights into agency pertaining to entirely newly acquired types of action-effect associations. Oculomotor sense of agency presumably represents an important cognitive foundation of gaze-based social interaction (social agency) or gaze-based human-machine interaction scenarios. Due to peculiarities of the oculomotor domain such as the varying degree of volitional control, eye movements could provide new information regarding more general theories of sense of agency in future research.

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  Kürten, J., Raettig, T., Gutzeit, J., & Huestegge, L. (2023). Preparing for simultaneous action and inaction: Temporal dynamics and target levels of inhibitory control. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 49(7), 1068-1082. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001126
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  When a single action is required, along with the simultaneous inhibition of another action, this typically results in frequent false-positive executions of the latter (inhibition failures). The absence of inhibitory demands in dual-action trials can render performance less error-prone (and sometimes faster) than in single-action trials. In the present study, we investigated the temporal dynamics of inhibitory control difficulties by varying the preparation time (for simultaneous action execution and inhibition). In two experiments, participants responded to a single peripheral visual target either with an eye movement toward it (Single Saccade), with a spatially corresponding button press (Single Manual), or with both responses simultaneously (Dual Action) as indicated by a color cue. Preparation time was manipulated via the cue-stimulus interval within blocks (Experiment 1) and between blocks (Experiment 2). Overall, responses were faster with longer (vs. shorter) preparation time. Crucially, however, our results reveal the exact dynamics of how inhibition failures (and thus dual-action benefits) in both response modalities substantially decrease with longer preparation, even though the cue did not contain information regarding the fully specified response that needed to be inhibited (i.e., its direction). These results highlight the role of sufficient preparation time not only for efficient action execution but also for concurrent inhibitory performance. The study contradicts the idea that inhibition can only be exerted globally or on the level of a fully specified response. Instead, it may also be directed at effector system representations or all associated responses, suggesting a highly flexible targeting of inhibitory control in cognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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  Strobach, T., Kürten, J., & Huestegge, L. (2023). Benefits of repeated alternations – Task-specific vs. task-general sequential adjustments of dual-task order control. Acta Psychologica, 236, 103921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103921
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  An important cognitive requirement in multitasking is the decision of how multiple tasks should be temporally scheduled (task order control). Specifically, task order switches (vs. repetitions) yield performance costs (i.e., task-order switch costs), suggesting that task order scheduling is a vital part of configuring a task set. Recently, it has been shown that this process takes specific task-related characteristics into account: task order switches were easier when switching to a preferred (vs. non-preferred) task order. Here, we ask whether another determinant of task order control, namely the phenomenon that a task order switch in a previous trial facilitates a task order switch in a current trial (i.e., a sequential modulation of task order switch effect) also takes task-specific characteristics into account. Based on three experiments involving task order switches between a preferred (dominant oculomotor task prior to non-dominant manual/pedal task) and a non-preferred (vice versa) order, we replicated the finding that task order switching (in Trial N) is facilitated after a previous switch (vs. repetition in Trial N - 1) in task order. There was no substantial evidence in favor of a significant difference when switching to the preferred vs. non-preferred order and in the analyses of the dominant oculomotor task and the non-dominant manual task. This indicates different mechanisms underlying the control of immediate task order configuration (indexed by task order switch costs) and the sequential modulation of these costs based on the task order transition type in the previous trial.
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  Kürten, J., Raettig, T., Gutzeit, J., & Huestegge, L. (2023). Dual-action benefits: global (action-inherent) and local (transient) sources of action prepotency underlying inhibition failures in multiple action control. Psychological Research, 87(2), 410-424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01672-0
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  Previous research has shown that the simultaneous execution of two actions (instead of only one) is not necessarily more difficult but can actually be easier (less error-prone), in particular when executing one action requires the simultaneous inhibition of another action. Corresponding inhibitory demands are particularly challenging when the to-be-inhibited action is highly prepotent (i.e., characterized by a strong urge to be executed). Here, we study a range of important potential sources of such prepotency. Building on a previously established paradigm to elicit dual-action benefits, participants responded to stimuli with single actions (either manual button press or saccade) or dual actions (button press and saccade). Crucially, we compared blocks in which these response demands were randomly intermixed (mixed blocks) with pure blocks involving only one type of response demand. The results highlight the impact of global (action-inherent) sources of action prepotency, as reflected in more pronounced inhibitory failures in saccade vs. manual control, but also more local (transient) sources of influence, as reflected in a greater probability of inhibition failures following trials that required the to-be-inhibited type of action. In addition, sequential analyses revealed that inhibitory control (including its failure) is exerted at the level of response modality representations, not at the level of fully specified response representations. In sum, the study highlights important preconditions and mechanisms underlying the observation of dual-action benefits.
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  Gutzeit, J., Weller, L., Kürten, J., & Huestegge, L. (2023). Intentional binding: Merely a procedural confound?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 49(6), 759-773. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001110
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  Sense of agency (SoA) is the feeling of having control over one’s actions and their outcomes. Previous research claimed that SoA is reflected in “intentional binding” effects, that is, the subjective compression of time between a voluntary action and an intended outcome. Conventional paradigms, however, typically lack an isolated manipulation of different degrees of agency (or intentionality), as the presence or absence of actions (along with subsequent perceptual changes) represents a potential confound variable. Using a newly developed paradigm, we were able to replicate typical “intentional binding” results in an initial experiment in which such a confound was deliberately included. We then eliminated this confound in a follow-up experiment by keeping the presence of actions and perceptual changes constant between conditions with and without agency while only manipulating subjective SoA. Here, explicit ratings showed that participants indeed felt responsible for effects in the Agency condition but not in the Baseline condition (demonstrating the successful manipulation of SoA), while we no longer found any differences in “intentional binding” effects between conditions. This indicates that previously reported relations between intentional binding and SoA could be merely based on procedural confounds. In particular, temporal compression effects usually interpreted in terms of “intentional binding” may rather result from more basic temporal grouping mechanisms for any (perceptual and/or motor) events that are perceived as meaningfully belonging together (e.g., as parts of a trial episode). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

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  Schumann, F., Steinborn, M. B., Kürten, J., Cao, L., Händel, B. F., & Huestegge, L. (2022). Restoration of attention by rest in a multitasking world: Theory, methodology, and empirical evidence. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 867978. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.867978
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  In this work, we evaluate the status of both theory and empirical evidence in the field of experimental rest-break research based on a framework that combines mental-chronometry and psychometric-measurement theory. To this end, we (1) provide a taxonomy of rest breaks according to which empirical studies can be classified (e.g., by differentiating between long, short, and micro-rest breaks based on context and temporal properties). Then, we (2) evaluate the theorizing in both the basic and applied fields of research and explain how popular concepts (e.g., ego depletion model, opportunity cost theory, attention restoration theory, action readiness, etc.) relate to each other in contemporary theoretical debates. Here, we highlight differences between all these models in the light of two symbolic categories, termed the resource-based and satiation-based model, including aspects related to the dynamics and the control (strategic or non-strategic) mechanisms at work. Based on a critical assessment of existing methodological and theoretical approaches, we finally (3) provide a set of guidelines for both theory building and future empirical approaches to the experimental study of rest breaks. We conclude that a psychometrically advanced and theoretically focused research of rest and recovery has the potential to finally provide a sound scientific basis to eventually mitigate the adverse effects of ever increasing task demands on performance and well-being in a multitasking world at work and leisure.
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  Schumann, F., Steinborn, M. B., Flehmig, H. C., Kürten, J., Langner, R., & Huestegge, L. (2022). On doing multi-act arithmetic: A multitrait-multimethod approach of performance dimensions in integrated multitasking. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.946626
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  Here we present a systematic plan to the experimental study of test–retest reliability in the multitasking domain, adopting the multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach to evaluate the psychometric properties of performance in Düker-type speeded multiple-act mental arithmetic. These form of tasks capacitate the experimental analysis of integrated multi-step processing by combining multiple mental operations in flexible ways in the service of the overarching goal of completing the task. A particular focus was on scoring methodology, particularly measures of response speed variability. To this end, we present data of two experiments with regard to (a) test–retest reliability, (b) between-measures correlational structure, (c) and stability (test–retest practice effects). Finally, we compared participants with high versus low performance variability to assess ability-related differences in measurement precision (typically used as proxy to “simulate” patient populations), which is especially relevant in the applied fields of clinical neuropsychology. The participants performed two classic integrated multi-act arithmetic tasks, combining addition and verification (Exp. 1) and addition and comparison (Exp. 2). The results revealed excellent test–retest reliability for the standard and the variability measures. The analysis of between-measures correlational structure revealed the typical pattern of convergent and discriminant relationships, and also, that absolute response speed variability was highly correlated with average speed (r \textgreater 0.85), indicating that these measures mainly deliver redundant information. In contrast, speed-adjusted (relativized) variability revealed discriminant validity being correlated to a much lesser degree with average speed, indicating that this measure delivers additional information not already provided by the speed measure. Furthermore, speed-adjusted variability was virtually unaffected by test–retest practice, which makes this measure interesting in situations with repeated testing.