ArticleExperimental brain research2018
Free choice tasks as random generation tasks: an investigation through working memory manipulations.
Article in Experimental brain research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Learning and transfer of response-effect relations.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2026Article
- The benefit of choice on task performance: Reduced difficulty effects in free-choice versus forced-choice tasks.Memory & cognition · 2025Article
- A cognitive approach to better understand foraging strategies of the adult domestic hen.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Generalisation of unpredictable action-effect features: Large individual differences with little on-average effect.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2024Article
- Similar proactive effect monitoring in free and forced choice action modes.Psychological research · 2023Article
- Is there hierarchical generalization in response-effect learning?Experimental brain research · 2023Article
- Instruction effects on randomness in sequence generation.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Are self-caused distractors easier to ignore? Experiments with the flanker task.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2021Article
- Are freely chosen actions generated by stimulus codes or effect codes?Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2020Article
- Overcoming randomness does not rule out the importance of inherent randomness for functionality.Journal of biosciences · 2019Review
- Smaller backward crosstalk effects for free choice tasks are not the result of immediate conflict adaptation.Cognitive processing · 2019Article
- Choice-induced inter-trial inhibition is modulated by idiosyncratic choice-consistency.PloS one · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Free choice tasks are tasks in which two or more equally valid response options per stimulus exist from which participants can choose. In investigations of the putative difference between self-generated and externally triggered actions, they are often contrasted with forced choice tasks, in which only one response option is considered correct. Usually, responses in free choice tasks are slower when compared with forced choice task responses, which may point to a qualitative difference in response selection. It was, however, also suggested that free choice tasks are in fact random generation tasks. Here, we tested the prediction that in this case, randomness of the free choice responses depends on working memory (WM) load. In Experiment 1, participants were provided with varying levels of external WM support in the form of displayed previous choices. In Experiment 2, WM load was induced via a concurrent n-back task. The data generally confirm the prediction: in Experiment 1, WM support improved both randomness and speed of responses. In Experiment 2, randomness decreased and responses slowed down with increasing WM load. These results suggest that free choice tasks have much in common with random generation tasks.
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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.