ReviewQuarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)2015
The point of no return: A fundamental limit on the ability to control thought and action.
Review in Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Action fluency and conscious intention: being aware of what we are about to do.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Response Preparation and the Simon Effect: Experimental and Model-Based Analyses.Journal of cognition · 2026Article
- It was 40 years ago today: Reflections "On the ability to inhibit simple and choice reaction time responses: A model and a method" by Logan et al. (1984).Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance · 2025Article
- Contemporary Trends in Operative Vaginal Delivery and Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injuries from 2016-2023.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- PROTOCOL: the On Track 2.0 cluster randomized teacher-led intervention to support executive function and self-regulation.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The limits of action control for deceptive actions in sports: Response inhibition for the basketball pump fake.PloS one · 2025Article
- Force monitoring reveals single trial dynamics of motor control in a stop signal task.Physiological reports · 2024Article
- Action inhibition in a sport-specific paradigm: examining the limits of action control in basketball.Psychological research · 2024Article
- No effects of 1 Hz offline TMS on performance in the stop-signal game.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Effects of motor restrictions on preparatory brain activity.Experimental brain research · 2021Article
- Effective Gamification of the Stop-Signal Task: Two Controlled Laboratory Experiments.JMIR serious games · 2020Article
- A sensorimotor control framework for understanding emotional communication and regulation.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2020Review
- Cathodal tDCS increases stop-signal reaction time.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
- Classification of cocaine-dependent participants with dynamic functional connectivity from functional magnetic resonance imaging data.Journal of neuroscience research · 2019Article
- Go-activation endures following the presentation of a stop-signal: evidence from startle.Journal of neurophysiology · 2017Article
- Stopping is not an option: the evolution of unstoppable motion elements (primitives).Journal of neurophysiology · 2015Article
- Dual-site beta tACS over rIFG and M1 enhances response inhibition: A parallel multiple control and replication study.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Bartlett (1958. Thinking. New York: Basic Books) described the point of no return as a point of irrevocable commitment to action, which was preceded by a period of gradually increasing commitment. As such, the point of no return reflects a fundamental limit on the ability to control thought and action. I review the literature on the point of no return, taking three perspectives. First, I consider the point of no return from the perspective of the controlled act, as a locus in the architecture and anatomy of the underlying processes. I review experiments from the stop-signal paradigm that suggest that the point of no return is located late in the response system. Then I consider the point of no return from the perspective of the act of control that tries to change the controlled act before it becomes irrevocable. From this perspective, the point of no return is a point in time that provides enough "lead time" for the act of control to take effect. I review experiments that measure the response time to the stop signal as the lead time required for response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm. Finally, I consider the point of no return in hierarchically controlled tasks, in which there may be many points of no return at different levels of the hierarchy. I review experiments on skilled typing that suggest different points of no return for the commands that determine what is typed and the countermands that inhibit typing, with increasing commitment to action the lower the level in the hierarchy. I end by considering the point of no return in perception and thought as well as action.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.