NSF Award
2218406
Much of our daily behavior is supported by habits, which we usually only become aware of when our behavior needs to change. For example, if we need to switch to driving a right-hand-drive vehicle while on vacation, we find ourselves habitually looking in the wrong location for the rear-view mirror and reaching with the wrong arm for the handbrake. Habits can be beneficial because they enable skills to be performed well without much conscious thought. However, habits can also be detrimental because they limit our capacity to change our behavior. It is therefore critical to understand how we acquire and eliminate habits. Habit formation has been widely studied using simple tasks in which people learn to associate visual cues with specific responses. This body of research has given rise to an “all or nothing” view of habits, in which behavior is either flexible or habitual. In more complex skills, however, some aspects of our behavior might be habitual while others remain flexible. For example, a worker in a production facility might have substantial flexibility in being able to assemble many different types of devices. But if the layout of their workspace is re-organized, they may habitually reach for the old (now wrong) location to retrieve a needed tool or component. It can therefore be critical to ensure that seemingly flexible behavior does not mask latent habits. The goal of this project is to develop systematic approaches to identifying which aspects of a behavior are habitual, understand how and when different components of a complex skill become habitual with practice and determine how formation of different types of habits can be shaped based on how we practice. Being able to identify and target specific habits during learning will help improve training programs to foster good habits and avoid or eliminate bad ones. While this project will focus on the role of habits in learning complex skills, the findings will also be applicable to other domains where habits play an important role, such as understanding consumer behavior, promoting a healthy lifestyle, and developing strategies for rehabilitation from injury or disease.<br/><br/>In this project, human participants will learn and practice a variety of tasks which require them to use multiple component processes to determine appropriate responses to visual stimuli. Over the course of practice over multiple sessions, the investigators will track whether and when the different underlying components of behavior become habitual. Whether or not each component of behavior becomes habitual is assessed by altering the requirements of the task in a way that is specific to each component, and then measuring the incidence of habitual ‘slips-of-action’ in which participants revert to the pattern of behavior they originally practiced. In further experiments, participants will be trained under conditions designed to promote formation of one type of habit while inhibiting formation of others.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
