Title |
Investigating the balance between goal-directed and habitual control in experimental and real-life settings
|
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Published in |
Learning & Behavior, February 2018
|
DOI | 10.3758/s13420-018-0313-6 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Floris E. Linnebank, Merel Kindt, Sanne de Wit |
Abstract |
Do people differ in their propensity to form habits? The current study related individual differences in habitual performance on the slips-of-action task to habit formation in real life. To this end, we developed a novel key-cover procedure that controls for the amount of repetition and motivation within a naturalistic setting. Participants received a key cover for the key to their home, which after several weeks was switched with a key cover that was previously attached to a dummy key. Participants recorded effort, time, attention, and mistakes in the key-selection process. Results were in line with established properties of habits, as attention decreased in the learning phase, yet effort, time, and mistakes increased after the key-cover switch. Performance on the slips-of-action task correlated negatively with changes in attention in the real-life key-cover task. This negative correlation may reflect that flexible behavioral adjustment requires more attention in people with a relatively weak goal-directed system. |
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Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Germany | 1 | 50% |
Unknown | 1 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
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Scientists | 1 | 50% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 50% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
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Unknown | 124 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Student > Ph. D. Student | 25 | 20% |
Student > Master | 20 | 16% |
Student > Bachelor | 17 | 14% |
Researcher | 13 | 10% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 11 | 9% |
Other | 17 | 14% |
Unknown | 21 | 17% |
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Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 5 | 4% |
Engineering | 5 | 4% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 4 | 3% |
Other | 21 | 17% |
Unknown | 34 | 27% |