Fig. 8

Only participants that identified with the self-relevant avatar (i.e., for whom the manipulation was successful) were considered for this analysis. Note that in the stop-signal paradigm, a lower SSRT indicates a better performance. A lower SSRT means that the estimated inhibition process is faster. A Descriptive statistics for both conditions depending on the task order in which they were completed. If participants played the self-relevant condition first, their SSRT (i.e., the response inhibition speed) improved from session 1–2; vice versa for the other order condition. Error bars depict the standard error of the mean. B Increased identification through similarity with the avatar is predictive of a performance change; as measured by the difference in SSRT between the two conditions. Self-reference was induced by the SPE, as opposed to customization as in Experiment 1. The higher identification with the self-relevant avatar, when it was used first, leads to a larger difference between the task conditions, which correspond to session 1 and 2. This performance difference is predicted by the strength of the identification with the avatar