The Sense of Agency Improves Visual Search and Holds Up Against External Salient Distractions in Virtual Reality

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals are able to process information more quickly when they feel in control of the stimuli they are interacting with. However, it was unclear how this effect interacts with other visually salient information. To investigate this issue, we invited 39 college students to control hand-shaped object in a virtual environment while the remaining three objects displayed pre-recorded rotational movements. Following this task, we asked participants to identify a hand-shaped object with thumb pointing upward, which was the designated search target. Irrespective of the validity of the visually salient attentional cue, participants responded 11% faster when the search target corresponded with the previously controlled target. We concluded that the facilitation effect of a sense of agency in visual searching is robust to external distractors. Embracing the resilience of this facilitation effect arising from a sense of agency in visual search tasks can offer valuable insights for enhancing the design of diverse systems and environments to optimize human performance and experience.