Evidence record

Do we choose what we do?

Every sentence on the exploration belongs to at least one claim below. Each says what kind of statement it is, what it rests on, what the evidence does not establish, and how far it was checked. Nothing here is a score, and none of it is a verdict on a belief or a theory.

Last checked 24 September 2026.

Source checked: 41
Presented as open: 1
A judgement, not a fact: 13
Partly checked: 3

If something here is wrong, misquoted, out of date or unfair, write to support@unknownoceans.com and give the claim number, which does not change.

What the question takes for granted

A question that is partly empirical and partly conceptual. The experiments measure when brain activity and reported intentions occur; whether that bears on choosing depends on what the activity is, how good the reports are, and what counts as choosing.

Brain activity measurably precedes the reported moment of deciding, in Libet-style tasks
Established
Replicated many times on average across trials. What the activity is, and how accurate the reports are, is what is argued.
The readiness potential marks the start of a decision
Contested
The classical reading takes its onset as the brain beginning to prepare the act; stochastic accumulator models take it as a by-product of averaging, with the decision later.
A person can report when they decided
Contested
The reported moment moves with the clock and the wording used to collect it. One review calls it not accurate; the model’s own authors argue the reports may be roughly right on their account.
Choosing is something other than the brain doing it
Contested
The page argues that the timing finding is troubling mainly on that assumption. It is a philosophical position, not something the experiments test.

How the question is labelled

Claim: The moment before

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Choosing

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

The question

Claim: An experiment from 1983 appeared to catch the brain deciding before the person did.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: he further reasoned that the subjects’ brains had already unconsciously initiated movement before their conscious willing
Context
Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential)abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: It is concluded that cerebral initiation of a spontaneous, freely voluntary act can begin unconsciously

Claim 3 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What it actually caught is still being argued.

Kind: Open question. Something the page says is not known.
Review: Presented as open. The page says this is unresolved, and the review found that it is.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: However, the interpretation of this finding remains controversial.

Claim 4 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Brain activity can be measured before a person reports deciding to move,

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Scalp electroencephalographic activity prior to movement, the Bereitschaftspotential, clearly begins prior to the reported onset of conscious intent.
Context
Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential)abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: The onset of cerebral activity clearly preceded by at least several hundred milliseconds the reported time of conscious intention to act.

What this does not establish

Seen in averages across many trials and people; the review notes that the signal is hard to discern in some individuals.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2021 on, "readiness potential" and "free will": the 2023 review reports a meta-analysis of almost forty replications that confirms the ordering.

Claim 5 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and can predict the choice a little better than chance.

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 4.1.2, on fMRI
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: the authors found two regions of the brain that indicated the choice, slightly above chance, made 7 s later
Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: although prediction accuracy was statistically significantly above chance, it was still only marginally better than a random guess
Context
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brainabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: the outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10 s before it enters awareness

What this does not establish

Two-choice button presses. The accuracy is read from two reviews; the 2008 paper itself was read only as an abstract.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2009 on, "free decisions" and fMRI: the same group’s replications (2011, 2013) are reported in the 2023 review; nothing raises the accuracy.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “and can sometimes predict the choice.” “Sometimes” left the size of the effect open; both reviews read describe the accuracy as only slightly above chance.

Claim 6 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What that shows depends on what the activity is,

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s framing of the argument set out in claims 39 to 46.

Claim 7 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and the classical interpretation has a serious alternative that is hard to rule out.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Nonclassical interpretations of the RP
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Whether a late- or early-decision account more aptly accounts for the data remains an open question
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: This interpretation has been vigorously challenged.
Supports
What is the readiness potential?Relevance of the RP for discussions of free will
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: As the classical view takes the RP to mediate between volition (or conscious intention) and action

What this does not establish

The first review is by the alternative’s own proponents, and it is the one that calls the older reading classical.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “and the most-cited interpretation has a serious alternative that is hard to rule out.” No source counts citations; "most-cited" was the page's own superlative. The 2021 review calls the older reading the classical view.

Claim 8 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The experiment is simple enough to describe in a sentence.

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Sit still, flex a finger whenever you feel like it, and note where a rotating dot was when you first felt the urge.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 2, “The Libet experiment”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: They viewed an image of a clock with a dot moving around the edge with a revolution period of 2.56 s.
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 2, “The Libet experiment”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: when they felt like doing so, to perform a quick, abrupt flexion of the fingers and/or the wrist of the right hand
Supports
Do we have (in)compatibilist phenomenology of deliberation? A surveysection on existing experiments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: reported the “W times,” the time of their first awareness of wanting (or wishing or willing) to act, using a clock that completed one rotation every 2,560 ms

What this does not establish

The movement was a flexion of the fingers or the wrist, and in some reporting modes the position was compared afterwards with a second spot rather than recalled directly.

Claim 10 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The electrodes on your scalp start registering a change about half a second before the movement.

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Do we have (in)compatibilist phenomenology of deliberation? A surveysection on existing experiments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: On average, type II RPs occurred about 350–400 ms before the reported W times and 500–550 ms before the actual motor action.
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 3
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Libet’s position is that the average 1-time is 550 ms before movement onset

What this does not establish

The figure is for series in which people reported no preplanning. Where they did, the onset was earlier, around a second. And the onset of a slowly rising average is itself a matter of definition (claim 55).

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2021 on: the 2023 review gives a common onset of 700 to 400 ms before movement across later work.

Claim 11 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: You report the urge about two tenths of a second before it.

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 3
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: the average 1b-time is − 200 ms (Libet et al., 1983)
Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: average W-time is only approximately 200 ms before movement onset, hundreds of ms after the apparent onset of the RP

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2021 on: the 2021 review says replications find 150 to 200 ms; nothing moves it far.

Claim 12 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The gap is the whole argument.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The case against conscious initiation rests on the interval between the two.

Context
What is the readiness potential?abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: who used the time difference between the RP and self-reported time of conscious intention to move to argue that we lack free will

Claim 13 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What was measured

Claim: What was measured

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What the measurements show

Claim: What the measurements show

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: A slow rise in electrical activity over motor areas, the readiness potential, precedes voluntary movements.

Kind: What the field holds. The settled view of a field, as a review, a consensus statement or a reference work gives it. Not one study.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?The readiness potential
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The RP is prominent at central electrode sites located above mesial motor cortical areas and peaks contralateral to the moving limb.
Supports
What is the readiness potential?The readiness potential
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: it is well-established as a reliable signal that precedes self-initiated movement in the group average

What this does not establish

It is a feature of the average over many trials. Whether it exists as such on any single trial is not known, and some people show none.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2021 on, "readiness potential": the 2023 review reports it highly reliable across replications; nothing changes it.

Claim 16 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: In 1983 Benjamin Libet and colleagues timed it against people’s own reports of when they first intended to move,

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 2, “The Libet experiment”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The aim of the Libet et al. (1983) study was to compare the timing of the conscious intention to move with the onset of the movement-related cortical potential (MRCP) in the EEG preceding the movement.
Context
Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential)abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: was directly compared with the reportable time (W) for appearance of the subjective experience of ‘wanting’ or intending to act

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “In 1983 Benjamin Libet timed it” The paper has four authors.

Claim 17 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and found the brain signal earlier than the reported intention by a few hundred milliseconds.

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Do we have (in)compatibilist phenomenology of deliberation? A surveysection on existing experiments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: type II RPs occurred about 350–400 ms before the reported W times
Context
Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential)abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: onset of the main negative shift in each RP preceded the corresponding mean W value by an average of about 350 ms, and by a minimum of about 150 ms

What this does not establish

Five subjects in the original study, and averages over forty movements a series.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2021 on: the 2023 review reports a meta-analysis of almost forty replications (Braun and others, 2021) that confirms the ordering.

Claim 18 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: In 2008 a different group went further, using brain imaging and asking which of two buttons a person would press.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Do we have (in)compatibilist phenomenology of deliberation? A surveysection on existing experiments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: which investigate the extent to which neural activity precedes choices between among multiple options ... (e.g., pressing either a left or right button
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 4.1.2, on fMRI
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Such an experiment was done by Soon et al. (2008) and reproduced by the same group with higher resolution

Claim 19 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Patterns in prefrontal and parietal cortex carried information about the upcoming choice, the authors report, up to ten seconds before it entered awareness.

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

Supports
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brainabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: We found that the outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10 s before it enters awareness.
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 4.1.2, on fMRI
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Given the sluggishness of the BOLD fMRI signal, the authors noted that this indicated that brain activity about 10 s in advance was already predictive of upcoming action.

What this does not establish

The paper was read only as an abstract. The ten seconds includes an allowance for the slowness of the imaging signal, and the prediction was only slightly better than chance (claim 21).

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2009 on, "free decisions" and fMRI: the same group reproduced it at higher resolution (2011) and for abstract choices (2013, four seconds); nothing overturns it.

Claim 20 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The prediction was only slightly better than chance: a tendency across many trials rather than a reading of any one of them.

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: although prediction accuracy was statistically significantly above chance, it was still only marginally better than a random guess
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 4.1.2, on fMRI
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: indicated the choice, slightly above chance

Later work looked for

As claim 20.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “up to ten seconds before it entered awareness, and as a tendency measured across many trials rather than a reading of any one of them.” The page described the prediction as a tendency without saying how weak it was. Both reviews read put it only slightly above chance.

Claim 21 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A finger movement, as timed in two experiments

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “One finger movement, as measured” The timeline sets an imaging result from 2008 beside the 1983 EEG timings, which were measured in different experiments, not on one movement.

Claim: up to 10 s before

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

Supports
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brainabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: up to 10 s before it enters awareness

What this does not establish

The authors’ figure, measured to the reported moment of awareness, which in that task came about a second before the movement. The paper was read only as an abstract.

Later work looked for

As claim 20.

Claim 23 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: In the separate two-button experiment, patterns in prefrontal and parietal cortex carry some information about which choice is coming.

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 4.1.2, on fMRI
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: the authors found two regions of the brain that indicated the choice, slightly above chance, made 7 s later: the frontopolar area and the parietal cortex

Later work looked for

As claim 20.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “Slow patterns in prefrontal and parietal cortex carry information about which choice is coming.” The entry read as part of the same finger movement as the EEG timings. It is a different experiment, and its prediction was weak.

Claim 24 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: ~550 ms before

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 3
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Libet’s position is that the average 1-time is 550 ms before movement onset

What this does not establish

As claim 11.

Later work looked for

As claim 11.

Claim 25 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The readiness potential begins over motor areas.

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?The readiness potential
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The RP is prominent at central electrode sites located above mesial motor cortical areas

Later work looked for

As claim 16.

Claim 26 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: ~200 ms before

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 3
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: the average 1b-time is − 200 ms

Later work looked for

As claim 12.

Claim 27 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The person reports first feeling the urge to move.

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: were told to note, for each movement, the time on the clock at which they first felt the urge, or will, to move (W-time)

Later work looked for

As claim 12.

Claim 28 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: 0

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: The movement begins.

Kind: Observation. Something measured or seen, as the named source reports it.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

The timings are measured back from the onset of the movement.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Their retrospective reports enabled Libet to establish a temporal relationship between a subject’s self-reported awareness of willing to move, the time of movement, and the onset of the RP.

Later work looked for

How the timings are referenced; not a finding later work revises.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “The muscle fires.” The sources read give the reference point as movement onset; none that was read states how it was detected, so the entry says no more than they do.

Claim 30 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What it does not show

Claim: What it does not show

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: The tasks are decisions with nothing at stake and no reason to prefer one moment, or one button, over another.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 7, “What sorts of decisions do we care about?”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The Libet paradigm involves arbitrary decisions, in the sense that as long as the subject complies with task demands, it does not matter when they choose to move or which finger or hand they move.
Supports
Do we have (in)compatibilist phenomenology of deliberation? A surveysection on existing experiments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: they do not examine the process of considering reasons for or against those options

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “The task is a decision with nothing at stake and no reason to prefer either option.” Libet’s task has no options, only a moment to choose; “either option” describes the 2008 two-button task. The sentence now covers both.

Claim 32 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Whether the results carry over to decisions with content is not something these experiments test.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Neural precursors of decisions that matter: an ERP study of deliberate and arbitrary choiceabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: But previous work focused on arbitrary decisions–purposeless, unreasoned, and without consequences. It remains unknown to what degree the RP generalizes to deliberate, more ecological decisions.
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 6.1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: This casts doubts on the ability to generalize W-time measures beyond arbitrary decisions

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “Whether it generalises to decisions with content, made over minutes rather than milliseconds, is not something the experiment tests.” “Over minutes” is not a contrast any source read draws, and the deliberate decisions later studied took seconds. The rest stands.

Claim 33 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Later studies that compared the two disagree: one in 2019 could not detect the readiness potential before choices about a real donation to a charity, and one in 2025 found it stronger before choices that earned the participants money.

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Neural precursors of decisions that matter: an ERP study of deliberate and arbitrary choiceabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: While we found the expected RPs for arbitrary decisions, they were strikingly absent for deliberate ones.
Supports
Neural precursors of decisions that matter: an ERP study of deliberate and arbitrary choiceIntroduction; Materials and methods
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: a pair of non-profit organizations (NPOs) were presented in each trial. In deliberate-decision trials, subjects chose to which NPO they would like to donate $1000 ... It was stressed that the donations were real and that no deception was used in the experiment.
Qualifies
Neural precursors of decisions that matter: an ERP study of deliberate and arbitrary choiceResults
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: The Bayes factor–while trending in the right direction–indicated inconclusive evidence
The 2019 study’s evidence that the signal is absent, rather than merely undetected, was partly inconclusive, and its reviewers pressed the point.
Supports
A multi-measurement study of the relation between deliberation and volitionDiscussion
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: Contrary to our prediction, we observed a stronger RP before deliberate decisions compared to arbitrary decisions.
Supports
A multi-measurement study of the relation between deliberation and volitionabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: In an effort to maximize their monetary gain, 50 participants

What this does not establish

Eighteen people were analysed in 2019 and fifty recruited in 2025. The tasks differed in how the choice was made and what was at stake, which the 2025 authors offer as a possible reason for the difference. Three other studies found no difference either way.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, "readiness potential" and "deliberate decisions", all years: the 2025 study, which reports the opposite of 2019 and cites three null comparisons; page now reports the disagreement.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “” The page said only that the experiments do not test deliberate decisions. Later studies did, and they point in opposite directions; the disagreement is now reported with who found what.

Claim 34 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The timing of a reported urge is also a report, produced by the same brain, about an event with no sharp edges.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s reading. That intention formation is gradual is a view the 2023 review attributes to many, not a finding.

Context
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 6.1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: the formation of an intention is thought by many to be a process that takes time to build up rather than an instantaneous all-or-none event

Claim 35 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: It is evidence, and it is not a stopwatch.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from the criticism of the W judgment and the clock experiments.

Context
Manipulations of Libet clock parameters affect intention timing awarenessIntroduction
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: the validity and reliability of W judgments have been questioned, with some arguing that they are inaccurate, invalid or unreliable
Context
Manipulations of Libet clock parameters affect intention timing awarenessabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: Our results demonstrate W judgments can be significantly influenced by the clock speed and number of clock markings.

Claim 36 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What it means

Claim: What it means

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What the readiness potential is

Claim: What the readiness potential is

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: The standard reading is that it is the brain preparing the movement,

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?The readiness potential
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The RP has traditionally been interpreted as a sign of planning and preparation for movement

Claim 39 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: which would mean the preparation starts before the awareness.

Kind: An argument. An argument a named thinker makes. That it is made is checked; whether it succeeds is argued.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Libet’s inference, as the review sets it out.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Given the RP’s perceived status as a preparatory signal to move, he further reasoned that the subjects’ brains had already unconsciously initiated movement before their conscious willing.

Claim 40 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A 2012 model proposes something else: that spontaneous neural activity drifts up and down all the time, that a movement happens when the drift crosses a threshold, and that averaging many trials backwards from the movement necessarily produces a rising curve whether or not anything was being prepared.

Kind: What a model says. What a theory or model predicts or describes, which is not the same as what has been observed.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movementabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Model
The source reads: the precise moment at which the decision threshold is crossed leading to movement is largely determined by spontaneous subthreshold fluctuations in neuronal activity. Time locking to movement onset ensures that these fluctuations appear in the average as a gradual exponential-looking increase in neuronal activity.
Supports
An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movementabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Model
The source reads: even when the subject was not preparing to move at that particular moment
Supports
An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movementResults, the prediction for interrupted trials
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Model
The source reads: According to our view, the motor system constantly undergoes covert fluctuations that bring it closer to or farther from threshold.
Supports
What is the readiness potential?Relevance of the RP for discussions of free will
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: Standard accumulation-to-bound mechanisms, when time-locked to movement and averaged, and when the ‘evidence’ is weak relative to the noise, necessarily produce a trace that has the profile of the RP.

What this does not establish

The model also includes a weak steady push toward moving, and the shape follows when that push is weak relative to the noise. It was fitted to a task where people waited several seconds with no cue to move.

Other readings

On the classical reading the rise is genuine preparation (claim 39). A study of trial-to-trial variance has been read as favouring preparation, and the model’s authors reply that it can be absorbed into the model (claim 45).

Claim 41 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: On that account the readiness potential is partly an artefact of how the data are aligned,

Kind: What a model says. What a theory or model predicts or describes, which is not the same as what has been observed.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Box 4
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: The time-locked average will then, at least in part, reflect the random buildup to those crests

What this does not establish

The authors say the account may not explain the peak of the signal, which probably originates in primary motor cortex, only its early phase.

Claim 42 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and the decision is the threshold crossing rather than the slope leading to it.

Kind: What a model says. What a theory or model predicts or describes, which is not the same as what has been observed.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Relevance of the RP for discussions of free will
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: The decision to move occurs when the threshold is reached prior to movement and the ‘onset’ of the RP does not correspond to a meaningful event

What this does not establish

What the model says, not something measured on single trials.

Claim 43 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Both readings fit the averaged electrical data.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Nonclassical interpretations of the RP
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Whether a late- or early-decision account more aptly accounts for the data remains an open question
Supports
What is the readiness potential?Box 4
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: The average trajectory of the decision variable as it approaches the threshold can be fit to electrophysiological data, such as the RP

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “Both models fit the electrical data.” The classical reading is an interpretation rather than a fitted model, and the fit in question is to the average over trials.

Claim 44 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Experiments that interrupt people mid-task, or track how the signal varies from one trial to the next, have been used to test them, with results claimed by each side.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movementabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: makes a specific prediction that we confirmed in a second electroencephalography experiment: Fast responses to temporally unpredictable interruptions should be preceded by a slow negative-going voltage deflection
Supports
An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movementMaterials and Methods, subjects
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: So for the classic Libet task, n = 14, and for the interruptus task, n = 13.
Supports
What is the readiness potential?Nonclassical interpretations of the RP
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Since the introduction of the AtBM [41] a few studies have challenged the late-decision view, or bolstered the early-decision view. One [48] looked at across-trial variance in the RP as a function of time

What this does not establish

The 2012 interruption experiment analysed 13 people. The variance study is known here through the 2021 review, whose authors argue it can be absorbed into their model.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “They are being separated by experiments that interrupt the process, and the question is open.” The interruption experiment was the model’s own confirmed prediction, and other work has been read the other way; the page now says both.

Claim 45 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A 2021 review led by the model’s first author calls the question open and argues that the model is the simpler account.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Nonclassical interpretations of the RP
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Whether a late- or early-decision account more aptly accounts for the data remains an open question, but, as mentioned previously, the late-decision position has parsimony on its side.

Other readings

The classical reading takes the rise as preparation; the 2021 authors discuss a variance study that has been read in its favour.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “” The page called the question open without a source that says so. The review that does is by the model’s own first author, and the page now says whose view it is.

Claim 46 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Two readings of the same curve

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Preparation precedes awareness

Kind: Hypothesis. A proposed explanation, not an established one.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Figure 1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: Early-decision accounts of the RP propose that the onset of the RP marks an inflection point in neural activity, the start of a process of planning and preparation for movement

Other readings

The accumulator reading in the next column.

Claim 48 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The rise is the motor system getting ready

Kind: Hypothesis. A proposed explanation, not an established one.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?The readiness potential
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The RP has traditionally been interpreted as a sign of planning and preparation for movement

Other readings

The accumulator reading in the next column.

Claim 49 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Conscious intention arrives after the process is under way

Kind: Hypothesis. A proposed explanation, not an established one.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background, quoting Libet and others 1983
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: It is concluded that cerebral initiation even of a spontaneous voluntary act, of the kind studied here, can and usually does begin unconsciously

What this does not establish

Rests on the reported times being accurate, which is disputed (claim 71).

Claim 50 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The feeling of deciding is a report on something already happening

Kind: Hypothesis. A proposed explanation, not an established one.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

The 2019 authors report this as the conclusion others drew, not as their own.

Supports
Neural precursors of decisions that matter: an ERP study of deliberate and arbitrary choiceIntroduction
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: And thus the subjective human experience of freely and consciously deciding to act is but an illusion

Other readings

On the accumulator reading, awareness coincides with the decision point (claim 43).

Claim 51 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The rise is an artefact of averaging

Kind: What a model says. What a theory or model predicts or describes, which is not the same as what has been observed.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Relevance of the RP for discussions of free will
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: it is just an artifact of the averaging process

What this does not establish

The authors say this of the signal’s onset and early phase, not its peak (claim 42).

Claim 52 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Neural activity fluctuates spontaneously whether or not a movement is coming

Kind: What a model says. What a theory or model predicts or describes, which is not the same as what has been observed.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Nonclassical interpretations of the RP
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: deflections, perhaps resembling the RP, approaching but not crossing the movement threshold, should happen regularly even when the subject is not making any movements

What this does not establish

A prediction of the model. The review says further research, ideally with invasive recordings, is needed to show it happens.

Claim 53 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Aligning many trials to the movement produces a rising average by construction

Kind: What a model says. What a theory or model predicts or describes, which is not the same as what has been observed.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Relevance of the RP for discussions of free will
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: when time-locked to movement and averaged, and when the ‘evidence’ is weak relative to the noise, necessarily produce a trace that has the profile of the RP

What this does not establish

Holds when the push to move is weak relative to the noise.

Claim 54 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The decision is the moment a fluctuation crosses threshold, not the climb

Kind: What a model says. What a theory or model predicts or describes, which is not the same as what has been observed.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Box 4
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Theory · Review of the field
The source reads: The RP onset (deviation from baseline) on this model is physiologically meaningless: it does not mark a causally efficacious neural event or process.

What this does not establish

As claim 43.

Claim 55 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What we are able to report

Claim: What we are able to report

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: People will explain choices they did not make.

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Manipulation detection and preference alterations in a choice blindness paradigmIntroduction
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: people can be induced to confabulate an explanation for why they selected the option they did not choose
Supports
Manipulation detection and preference alterations in a choice blindness paradigmDiscussion
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: Participants exhibited choice blindness under these conditions
Context
Failure to Detect Mismatches Between Intention and Outcome in a Simple Decision Taskabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: while nevertheless offering introspectively derived reasons for why they chose the way they did

What this does not establish

Shown for choices between faces and similar low-stakes options, with the swap concealed.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, "choice blindness", open access, all years: replications in other samples and tasks (2014 onward); nothing that reverses it.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “People confidently explain choices they did not make.” No source read measured the confidence of the explanations in this study, so the word is gone.

Claim 57 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: In a 2005 study where the photograph a participant had chosen was swapped for the one they rejected, most of the swaps went unnoticed, and people gave reasons for preferring the face they had just turned down.

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

Supports
Failure to Detect Mismatches Between Intention and Outcome in a Simple Decision Taskabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: Participants made choices between presented face pairs on the basis of attractiveness ... Participants failed to notice conspicuous mismatches between their intended choice and the outcome they were presented with, while nevertheless offering introspectively derived reasons for why they chose the way they did
Supports
Manipulation detection and preference alterations in a choice blindness paradigmResults, manipulation detection
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: This detection rate is comparable to the 13% observed in Johansson’s original work
Supports
Manipulation detection and preference alterations in a choice blindness paradigmIntroduction
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: the faces were covertly exchanged, such that the unselected face was presented as though they had selected it and participants were asked to provide an explanation for choosing it

What this does not establish

The 2005 paper was read only as an abstract; the detection rate comes from a replication’s account of it. About a quarter of participants noticed at least one swap.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, "choice blindness", open access: the 2014 replication in a Singaporean sample found 16.9 per cent detection, in line with the original.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “In a study where the photograph a participant had chosen was swapped for the one they rejected, most did not notice, and then gave reasons for preferring the face they had just turned down.” The 13 per cent detection figure is per swap; about a quarter of participants caught at least one, so “most” is true of swaps and the page now says that.

Claim 58 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That does not show that choosing is an illusion.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page keeps the result to what it tested: noticing and explaining.

Claim 59 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: It suggests that the explanation of a choice can be produced separately from the choice,

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Context
Manipulation detection and preference alterations in a choice blindness paradigmIntroduction
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: our ability to provide accurate explanations for our choices may be much more limited than is commonly believed
Context
Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processesCrossref record
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Catalogue record only, 24 September 2026
The classic argument that verbal reports on mental processes can go beyond what people can know. Record only; the paper was not read.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “It shows that the explanation of a choice is produced separately from the choice,” One paradigm with face choices does not show how every explanation is produced; the researchers who replicated it say “may be”.

Claim 60 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: so an introspective report is not a direct readout of the process, in this experiment or in Libet’s.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Links the choice-blindness result to the criticism of Libet’s W reports.

Context
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 6.1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: W-time also appears to suffer from low validity.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “which means introspective reports are not a direct readout of the process, in this experiment or in Libet’s.” Follows the change in claim 60.

Claim 61 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

The part measurement does not reach

Claim: The part measurement does not reach

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: The report of a decision is made by the same machinery as the decision.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s summary of the section above: reports are produced by the brain, not read off it.

Claim 63 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Whether the question is empirical

Claim: Whether the question is empirical

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: A finding that brain activity precedes awareness is most troubling if you assume the deciding self is something other than the brain doing it.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Context
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 7, summary
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: They do convincingly show that neural activity underlies decision and precedes action, but as materialists, this was to be expected.

Other readings

Those who take the finding to threaten conscious control argue it matters whatever the self is, because it bears on whether awareness does any causal work (claim 67).

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “A finding that brain activity precedes awareness is only troubling if you assume the deciding self is something other than the brain doing it.” “Only” dismissed the worry Libet himself raised, which is about conscious control and survives a materialist view. The page now reports it (claims 67 and 68).

Claim 65 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: On the view that a person is what their brain is doing, an earlier neural cause of a choice is not a rival to the choice.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A position the 2023 review’s authors state as materialists.

Context
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 7, summary
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The data from neuroscience is compatible with that activity being related to neural processes of deciding or forming intentions.

Claim 66 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What survives on that view is a narrower question, whether the conscious part does any of the work,

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Context
What is the readiness potential?Relevance of the RP for discussions of free will
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: The notion that neuroscience could demonstrate the inefficacy of conscious will naturally captured much attention from philosophers and psychologists and it remains an active subject of debate

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “” Added so the passage does not dismiss the worry the experiments were actually taken to raise.

Claim 67 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and it is the one Libet himself raised.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the readiness potential?Historical background, quoting Libet and others 1983
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: These considerations would appear to introduce certain constraints on the potential of the individual for exerting conscious initiation and control over his voluntary acts.
Context
Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential)abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: This introduces certain constraints on the potentiality for conscious initiation and control of voluntary acts.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “” Added with claim 67.

Claim 68 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: So part of this is a question about what would count as choosing, and no experiment settles that.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Context
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 7
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: It also depends upon conceptual matters that link the notion of conscious intention to discussions of free will

Claim 69 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What the experiments do show is that our reports of when we decided shift with the clock and the wording used to collect them,

Kind: Experimental result. What an experiment or trial found, under its own conditions. A result in animals, cells or a simulation is not a result in people.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Manipulations of Libet clock parameters affect intention timing awarenessDiscussion, theoretical implications
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Experiment
The source reads: changes in the Libet clock speed and number of clock markings can significantly alter the time at which people perceive their intention to act
Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?section 4.1.1, on the Braun and others meta-analysis
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Changes in the wording of instructions have further changed the subjective perception of timing.

What this does not establish

The clock study recorded no EEG, and its authors say testing was cut short, leaving it powered only for moderate effects. The wording effect reported is 28 ms, in the gap between reported intention and reported movement.

Later work looked for

Europe PMC, 2022 on, W judgments: the 2023 review collects later work showing W moved by post-movement stimulation, report method and instructions; nothing restores confidence in it.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “What the experiments do settle is that the timing of our own decisions is not something we observe accurately,” “Settle” claimed more than the evidence carries: the review by the model’s authors argues the reports may be reasonably accurate. What is measured is that they move with how they are collected.

Claim 70 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and a 2023 review of the method concludes that they are not accurate.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: Numerous studies show that the Libet method for determining intent, W time, is not accurate and may be misleading.
Qualifies
What is the readiness potential?Nonclassical interpretations of the RP
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 24 September 2026 · Research in people · Review of the field
The source reads: when asked to report the time at which a decisive neural event took place, subjects are reasonably accurate in doing so
On the accumulator account the reports may be roughly right, because the decision is late.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “which was not obvious and is now established.” “Now established” rested on no cited source. A 2023 review says it, and is named; a 2021 review argues otherwise on the accumulator account, recorded here.

Claim 71 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That was not obvious.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s judgement: people ordinarily take their sense of when they decided at face value.

Claim 72 · checked 24 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What was read

Do we have (in)compatibilist phenomenology of deliberation? A surveyHonma, Inarimori and Miyazono, Frontiers in Psychology 16 · Europe PMC full text, PMC12950780Read in full, 24 September 2026 · CC BY 4.0Read for its account of Libet’s task and figures, which cites the 1983 paper by page.
Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential)Libet and others, Brain · PubMed abstract via Europe PMC, PMID 6640273Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted brieflyBehind Oxford; no open copy found by Unpaywall. The abstract was read; the paper was not.
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brainSoon, Brass, Heinze and Haynes, Nature Neuroscience · PubMed abstract via Europe PMC, PMID 18408715Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted brieflyNot open access. The accuracy figures were read in two later reviews.
Manipulations of Libet clock parameters affect intention timing awarenessIvanof, Terhune, Coyle and Moore, Scientific Reports 12 · Europe PMC full text, PMC9686259Read in full, 24 September 2026 · CC BY 4.0
An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movementSchurger, Sitt and Dehaene, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · NCBI PMC full text, PMC3479453, read as archived by the Wayback Machine (January 2026 capture); the publisher does not allow the XMLRead in full, 24 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted briefly
What is the readiness potential?Schurger, Hu, Pak and Roskies, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 25 · NCBI PMC full text, PMC8192467, via E-utilitiesRead in full, 24 September 2026 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Written by the first author of the accumulator model and colleagues; it argues for the model.
What is the intention to move and when does it occur?Triggiani, Kreiman, Lewis, Maoz, Mele, Mudrik, Roskies, Schurger and Hallett, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 151 · NCBI PMC full text, PMC10330627, via E-utilitiesRead in full, 24 September 2026 · Author manuscript; quoted brieflyThe supplementary material was not read.
Neural precursors of decisions that matter: an ERP study of deliberate and arbitrary choiceMaoz, Yaffe, Koch and Mudrik, eLife 8 · Europe PMC full text, PMC6809608, with the published decision letterRead in full, 24 September 2026 · CC BY 4.0
A multi-measurement study of the relation between deliberation and volitionPech, Caspar, Pacherie, Cleeremans and Maoz, Neuroscience of Consciousness · Europe PMC full text, PMC12342383Read in full, 24 September 2026 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Failure to Detect Mismatches Between Intention and Outcome in a Simple Decision TaskJohansson and others, Science · Crossref and PubMed abstract, PMID 16210542Abstract only, 24 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted brieflyThe repository copy is on PhilPapers, which refuses this environment. The detection rate was read in a later replication.
Manipulation detection and preference alterations in a choice blindness paradigmTaya, Gupta, Farber and Mullette-Gillman, PLOS ONE 9 · Europe PMC full text, PMC4172758Read in full, 24 September 2026 · CC BY 4.0
Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processesNisbett and Wilson, Psychological Review · Crossref record for doi 10.1037/0033-295X.84.3.231Catalogue record only, 24 September 2026Paywalled; the Deep Blue copy refused this environment and the Wayback Machine did not answer. Title, authors and date only.