Abstract
This paper discusses the issues surrounding voluntary action control in terms of two models that have emerged in empirical research into how our human conscious capabilities govern and control voluntary motor actions. A characterization of two aspects of consciousness, phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness, enables us to ask whether effect anticipations need be accessible to consciousness, or whether they can also have an effect on conscious control at an unconscious stage. A review of empirical studies points to the fact that willed actions are influenced by effect anticipations both when they are conscious and when they remain inaccessible to the conscious mind. This suggests that the effects of conscious voluntary actions—in line with the ideomotor principle proposed by William James—are anticipated during the generation of responses. I propose that the integration of perceptual and motor codes arises during action planning. The features of anticipated effects appear to be optionally connected with the features of the actions selected to bring about these effects in the world.
Highlights
Recent years have seen a rise in the amount of empirical research that aspires, on the one hand, to describe and explain how our human conscious capabilities govern and control voluntary motor actions and, on the otherSubm. 16 December 2016 Acc. 12 November 2017 Doi:10.5840/forphil20172215hand, how these capabilities link these actions with their perceptual goals with a view to achieving the intended effects
One of the key questions that guide and organize research into human consciousness concerns just its functional nature: what is consciousness good for? A lot of answers to this question are possible, but the one that I shall be dealing with is popular: Conscious control enables human decision makers to override routines, to exercise willpower, to find innovative solutions, to learn by instruction, to decide collectively, and to justify their choices.2. The implications of this specification are that decisionmaking and action control are exceptionally valuable from the point of view of human access consciousness, as they support and enhance the ways in which we address environmental challenges
The ideomotor principle can be considered a key theme in cognitive psychology, and has been adapted to suit recent theoretical frameworks of action control
Summary
Recent years have seen a rise in the amount of empirical research that aspires, on the one hand, to describe and explain how our human conscious capabilities govern and control voluntary motor actions and, on the other. Hand, how these capabilities link these actions with their perceptual goals with a view to achieving the intended effects. A significant portion of this research has received confirmation from the ideomotor intellectual approach to action control. According to the ideomotor principle the person (the acting self, actor or agent) chooses, starts and performs a movement by activating anticipatory codes of the movement’s perceptible effects. I shall review the empirical paradigms showing how the effects of conscious voluntary actions—in line with the ideomotor principle—are anticipated during the generation of a response. I suggest that the integration of perceptual and motor codes arises during action planning. The features of the anticipated effects are optionally connected with the features of the actions selected to bring about these effects in the world
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