In most situations, we are able to tell those outcomes we cause from those we do not. By now, research has provided us with a reasonably good understanding of the cognitive processes that underlie this sense of agency – it is thought to be produced by a comparison between a prediction of the outcome and the actual outcome that occurs. What is less clear is whether having a sense of agency can, itself, influence cognition. In the current study, we examined the possibility that sense of agency can affect memory, and we report evidence that stimuli that one feels a sense of agency over are, in fact, better remembered than counterparts without this. This self-agency effect can be distinguished from previously described control-related memory enhancements and adds to what we know of the cognitive consequences of having a sense of agency.

在大多数情况下，我们能够从那些我们没有做到的结果中分辨出来。到目前为止，研究已经为我们提供了对这种代理意识基础的认知过程的相当不错的理解-认为它是通过比较结果预测和实际发生的结果而产生的。尚不清楚的是，具有代理能力本身是否会影响认知。在当前的研究中，我们研究了代理感会影响记忆的可能性，并且我们报告的证据表明，与没有这种代理感的人相比，人们感觉到一种代理感过强的刺激事实上更容易被记住。这种自我代理的效果 可以与先前描述的与控制有关的记忆增强区分开来，并增加了我们对具有代理感的认知后果的认识。