predecisional negative shift

that component of the readiness potential that precedes any conscious awareness of a wish to act. Investigations with electroencephalography suggest that it can be detected some 350 ms before the individual reports a decision to make a movement and some 550 ms before the movement occurs. The finding is controversial because it implies that behavior is instigated nonconsciously and hence that free will is illusory; the ecological validity of such experiments has also been questioned. [reported by U.S. physiologist Benjamin Libet (1916–2007)]

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Psychology term of the day

February 16th 2025

cause

1. an event or state that brings about another (its effect).

2. in Aristotelian and rationalist philosophy, an entity or event that is a requirement for another entity or event’s coming to be. Aristotle proposed that there were four types of cause—material, formal, efficient, and final. In the case of a sculpture, for example, the material cause is the stone or metal from which it is made, the formal cause is the form or structure that it takes, the efficient cause is the sculptor, and the final cause is the sculptor’s aim or purpose in making it. —causal adj.