Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30042837›Full record

ArticleNeuroscience of consciousness2017

Deliberation period during easy and difficult decisions: re-examining Libet's "veto" window in a more ecologically valid framework.

Eve A Isham, Krystal A Wulf, Camille Mejia, Lara C Krisst

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Neuroscience of consciousness, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Functional Freedom: A Psychological Model of Freedom in Decision-Making.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Eve A IshamUC Davis Department of Psychology, Center for Mind and Brain.
Krystal A WulfUC Davis Department of Psychology, Center for Mind and Brain.
Camille MejiaUC Davis Department of Psychology, Center for Mind and Brain.
Lara C KrisstUC Davis Department of Psychology, Center for Mind and Brain.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Whether consciousness plays a causal role in cognitive processing remains debated. According to Benjamin Libet, consciousness is needed to deliberate and veto an action that is initiated unconsciously. Libet offered that the deliberation window takes place between the time of conscious intent (W) and action (MR). We further examined this deliberation-veto hypothesis by measuring the length of the temporal window (W-MR) when making easy and difficult choices. If Libet were correct that the W-MR is intended for evaluation and cancelation, we should expect a shorter W-MR for an easy decision since less deliberation is presumably needed. Instead, we observed a less intuitive effect: The W-MR window in the easy trials was longer than the W-MR window in the difficult ones. Our results suggest several interpretations including the idea that consciousness may play a causal role in decision making but not in a straightforward manner as assumed by Libet's veto hypothesis.

Indexed as

agencydecisional complexitydecision makingintentionLibetvetovolition; consciousness

Identifiers

PMID30042837
PMCPMC6007182

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

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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.