Guillaume P. Pech
PhD student, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Cognitive Science of volition, agency, and decision-making
Guillaume P. Pech
About
Did you choose to be here? If yes, you must rely on a subjective experience that you make your own choice, producing action of your own will. But what is so specific about the actions that we experience as controlled compared to those that we do not? Why do we feel this way?
To answer these questions, I study neural and behavioral markers of volition, with a focus on the Readiness Potential and related self-report and implicit measures (e.g., temporal binding). More broadly, I investigate how decision-making processes interface with debates on free will and social/moral behavior.
PhD Student, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
CO3 lab (ULB) — supervised by Prof. Axel Cleeremans
Brain Institute (Chapman University) — co-supervised by Prof. Uri Maoz
M&SB lab (Ghent University) — collaborating with Prof. Emilie Caspar
Research interests: Intentions, effort, voluntary action, sense of agency, empathy, meta-science, decision-making, EEG and statistical inference.
More infos -> [CV]
Publications
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Pech, G. P., & Caspar, E. A. (2025). A cross-cultural EEG study of how obedience and conformity influence reconciliation intentions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. [PDF] [DOI]
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Caspar, E. A., Pech, G. P., & Ros, P. (2025). Long-term affective and non-affective brain alterations across three generations following the genocide in Cambodia. Biological Psychology. [PDF] [DOI]
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Pech, G. P., Caspar, E. A., Pacherie, E., Cleeremans, A., & Maoz, U. (2025). A multi-measurement study of the relation between deliberation and volition. Neuroscience of Consciousness. [PDF] [DOI]
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Caspar, E. A., & Pech, G. P. (2024). Obedience to authority reduces cognitive conflict before an action. Social Neuroscience. [PDF] [DOI]
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Caspar, E. A., Nicolay, E., Banderembaho, F., & Pech, G. P. (2024). Volition as a modulator of the intergroup empathy bias. Social Neuroscience. [PDF] [DOI]
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Pech, G. P., Gishoma, D., & Caspar, E. A. (2024). A novel EEG-based paradigm to measure intergroup prosociality: An intergenerational study in the aftermath of the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. [PDF] [DOI]
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Pech, P. G., & Caspar, A. E. (2023). Does the cowl make the monk? The effect of military and Red Cross uniforms on empathy for pain, sense of agency and moral behaviors. Frontiers in Psychology. [PDF] [DOI]
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Caspar, E. A., Pech, G. P., Gishoma, D., & Kanazayire, C. (2023). On the impact of the genocide on the intergroup empathy bias between former perpetrators, survivors, and their children in Rwanda. American Psychologist.[PDF] [DOI]
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Pech, P. G., & Caspar, A. E. (2022). Can a video game with a fictional minority group decrease intergroup biases towards non-fictional minorities? A social neuroscience study. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. [PDF] [DOI]
Preprint/Draft ongoing papers
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Pech G. P. & Mentec I., Auger C., Coulibaly. B., Malaise M., Vandeville M., Cleeremans A.. To act or not to act? Implicit and explicit measures of the valence of the sense of agency. Preprint
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Pech, P. G., Nicolay E., Rimkevičius P., Maoz U., Cleeremans A. The Role of Endogenous Input in Self-Generated Action: A Multi-Measurement Study Comparing Markers of Volition. Preprint
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Pech, P. G., Berry S., Cleeremans A. Volition, Self-reports rely on what we choose, temporal binding on what we predict, and the readiness-potential on what we act for. [draft]