Old Habits May Die Hard, But How Are They Born? The Role of Context in Habit Formation

A crucial feature of habits is their automaticity, meaning habitual actions are executed irrespective of their immediate consequences, whether costs or benefits (Wood & Ruenger, 2016, Yin & Knowlton, 2006). A common paradigm in the study of habits in previous human and animal research is the outcome devaluation paradigm. This entails a learning phase consisting of instrumental response-outcome training, followed by a devaluation phase where the previously valued outcome becomes devalued, and then a test (outcome devaluation test or Slips Of Action Task (SOAT)) phase to measure the persistence of behaviours after the associated outcome is devalued. According to these findings (deWit et al., 2007, 2012, Watson & deWit, 2018), when an action continues to be sensitive to its outcome, it is considered goal-directed. If, however, it is repeated even after its consequence becomes devalued, it is considered habitual (also refer to Wood & Neal, 2007). These paradigms measure the relative balance between the two systems (goal-directed and habitual) based on the Devaluation Sensitivity Index: ((N valued responses/N total responses) - (N devalued responses/N total responses)). As a result, there is no direct, independent measure for the study of habits, rather a relative one. Additionally, even though we have some hints about the role of repetition/extensive training (Adams, 1982), or recency (Giesen et al., 2020) in habit formation, the precise factors (mechanisms, timing, duration, etc.) for the formation of habits is presently still exploratory. The aims of our study, then, are thus: 1. We wish to replicate the findings from previous studies by deWit et al. in an experimental set-up by employing the outcome devaluation paradigm in a Slips of Actions Task (SOAT: "Go No-go" task procedure), to elicit habitual responses in an experimental set-up. 2. Importantly, with the aim of identifying the contributing factors in the formation of habits, we wish to systematically measure the role of context stability in the strength of habit formation. 3. Next, we wish to test whether habits express themselves more automatically in situations of stress (compared to baseline, non-stressful situations) as has been previously demonstrated (Schwabe & Wolf, 2010, Soares et al., 2012). 4. Lastly, we would like to ascertain whether habit strength influences habit expression differentially in high compared to low stress situations. Thus, we wish to validate the efficacy of the outcome devaluation paradigm in a modified experimental set-up with the aim of determining the role of context and stress in habit formation and habit expression.