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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Sussex Research Online A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details The Sense of Agency in Hypnosis and Meditation Peter J. I. Lush Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Psychology University of Sussex September 2017 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary 4 Declaration 5 Acknowledgements 7 Chapter I Introduction 8 General introduction 8 The sense of agency and the experience of volition 9 Measuring sense of agency 13 Awareness of intentions 15 Metacognition and Higher Order Thoughts 16 Hypnosis 18 Mindfulness meditation 22 Aims of the thesis 29 Chapter II Metacognition of intentions in mindfulness and hypnosis 33 General introduction 34 Study 1 method 39 Study 1 results 45 Study 1 discussion 47 Study 2 introduction 49 2 Study 2 method 49 Study 2 results 51 Study 2 discussion 51 Study 3 introduction 52 Study 3 method 52 Study 3 results 55 Study 3 discussion 56 General discussion 58 Chapter III Illusory temporal binding in meditators 63 Introduction 64 Method 69 Results 74 Discussion 76 Chapter IV The Power of Suggestion: Post-hypnotically induced changes 80 in the temporal binding of intentional action outcomes Introduction 81 Method 83 Results 91 Discussion 98 Chapter V Intentional binding in trait hypnotisability 101 Introduction 102 Method 106 3 Results 110 Discussion 114 Chapter VI The Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotisability 118 Introduction 119 Method 126 Results 130 Discussion 136 Chapter VII General discussion 139 Summary 139 Metacognition of intentions 139 The Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotisability 145 Mechanisms of intentional binding 146 Disorders of agency. 162 Conclusion 165 References 166 Supplemental material for Chapter II 196 Supplemental material for Chapter III 197 Supplemental material for Chapter IV 200 4 UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX PETER JAMES I’ANSON LUSH, PhD PSYCHOLOGY THE SENSE OF AGENCY IN HYPNOSIS AND MEDITATION SUMMARY The sense of agency is the experience of being the initiator of our intentional actions and their outcomes. According to higher order thought theory, a representation becomes conscious when there is a higher order state about it. Thus conscious experience, including that of intentions, is metacognitive. The experience of involuntariness characteristic of hypnotic responding may be attributable to the formation and maintenance of inaccurate metacognitive higher order states of intending. Conversely, the practice of Buddhist mindfulness meditation may develop accurate metacognition, including higher order states of intending. Highly hypnotisable people and mindfulness meditators may therefore occupy two ends of a spectrum of metacognitive ability with regard to unconscious intentions. The presented research investigated predicted trait differences in cognitive tasks which directly or indirectly reflect metacognition of intentions: the timing of an experience of an intention to move and the compressed time interval between a voluntary action and its outcome, known as intentional binding. As an implicit measure of sense of agency, intentional binding was also employed to investigate the veridicality of reports of the experience of involuntariness in hypnotic responding. Additionally, while hypnosis presents a unique opportunity to investigate reliable changes in agentic experience, existing hypnosis screening instruments are time consuming and present a barrier to wider adoption of hypnosis as an instrument for studying consciousness. Here a revised, time-efficient hypnosis screening procedure (the SWASH) is presented. Consistent with predictions, highly hypnotisable groups reported later awareness of motor intentions than less hypnotisable groups and meditators earlier awareness than non- meditators. In an intentional binding task, high hypnotisables showed less binding of an action-outcome toward an action (outcome binding) than low hypnotisables and meditators more outcome binding than non-meditators. Outcome binding was reduced in post-hypnotic involuntary action compared to voluntary action. It is proposed that intentional binding is driven by a cue combination mechanism and that these differences reflect varying precision of motor intention related information in reported timing judgements. The SWASH was found to be a reliable hypnosis screening instrument. 5 Declarations The thesis conforms to an ‘article format’ in which the middle chapters consist of discrete articles written in a style that is appropriate for publication in peer-reviewed journals in the field. The first and final chapters present overviews and discussions of the field and the research undertaken. Chapter 1 is published in Neuroscience of Consciousness as: Lush, P., Naish, P., & Dienes, Z. (2016). Metacognition of intentions in mindfulness and hypnosis. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2016(1), niw007. All the authors contributed to the study concept and design. P. Lush performed the testing and data collection and performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of Z. Dienes. P. Lush drafted the manuscript, and all the authors provided critical revisions. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission. Chapter 2 is published in Mindfulness as: Lush, P., Parkinson, J., & Dienes, Z. (2016). Illusory temporal binding in meditators. Mindfulness, 7(6), 1416-1422. All the authors contributed to the study concept and design. P. Lush performed the testing and data collection and performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of Z. Dienes. P. Lush drafted the manuscript, and all the authors provided critical revisions. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission. Chapter 3 is published in Psychological Science as: Lush, P., Caspar, E. A., Cleeremans, A., Haggard, P., Magalhães De Saldanha da Gama, P. A., & Dienes, Z. (2017). The Power of Suggestion: Posthypnotically Induced Changes in the Temporal Binding of Intentional Action Outcomes. Psychological Science, 28(5), 661-669. All the authors contributed to the study concept and design. P. Lush performed the testing and data collection and performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of Z. Dienes. P. Lush drafted the manuscript, and all the authors provided critical revisions. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission. 6 Chapter 4 is written in the style of an article appropriate for Consciousness & Cognition. P. Lush & Z. Dienes were responsible for the study concept and design. P. Lush performed the testing and data collection and P. Lush performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of Z. Dienes. P. Lush drafted the manuscript, and Z. Dienes provided critical revisions. Chapter 5 is written in the style of an article appropriate for Consciousness & Cognition. All the authors contributed to the study concept and design. P. Lush, N. Maclatchie and G. Moga performed the testing and data collection and P. Lush performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of Z. Dienes. P. Lush drafted the manuscript, and Z. Dienes provided critical revisions. --------------------------- I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. However, the thesis incorporates to the extent indicated below, material already submitted as part of required coursework and/or for the degree of: 1. BSc Neuroscience with Cognitive Science (awarded by Sussex University) Data for 31 of the 66 participants reported in Study 1 of Chapter 1 were collected for the course: Life Sciences Final Year Research Project 2. MSc Cognitive Neuroscience (awarded by Sussex University) Data for 8 of the 16 participants reported in Chapter 2 were collected for the course: Research Dissertation Peter J. I. Lush 28/09/2017 7 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my friends and family for their help and support. In particular Julie for your support in this and all those other things. Thanks to Caitlyn for putting up with a busy daddy over the last few months. Thanks to Warrick for many fruitful conversations and for much help in these final stages, and also to Luise and Becks for proof-reading (and conversation). I would also like to acknowledge financial support from The University of Sussex, The Belgian Science Policy Office and The Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. Finally, thanks to Zoltan Dienes for patiently and expertly guiding me throughout the many steps that have led to this thesis. 8 Chapter I General Introduction The sense of agency is the experience we have of being the initiator of our actions and controller of their outcomes (Haggard & Chambon 2012). The experience of agency is central to human experience and, because it supports attributions of responsibility, is foundational to the formal and informal structures