1. Habits resist temporary threats to goal pursuit
In the introductory session, Wendy argued that habits are notorious for preventing us from maintaining our efforts to make healthy behavior changes
In the current talk, I’m going to make essentially the same argument but from the other side of the coin: habits may be necessary to allow us to maintain behavior change
Jen Labrecque & Wendy Wood
August 26, 2017
Catalina Island, CA
Habits resist temporary threats to goal pursuit

2. Expanding our understanding of habit formation
Repetition
Context stability
Perceived automaticity
Other aspects of the participant’s mindset? Deliberation?
Can people form habits if they’re thinking deliberately about the behavior, or do they have to be performing it mindlessly?
Do people’s perceptions of automaticity for a behavior depend only on their experience of repetition or also whether they are thinking deliberately while repeating?
In the talks over the past two days we’ve heard a number of different discussions of how people understand habit formation
Early definitions focused only on repetition but as we’ve discussed that tells us little about the pattern of the behavior
More current work considers repetition x context stability which better characterizes the behavior itself, but some criticize it still doesn’t tell us about the experience of the person
So very commonly especially in the health literature we’ll see the SRHI or SRBAI used to assess the perceived automaticity of participants
But what about other aspects of the participant’s mindset?

3. Once formed, can habits help maintain healthy behavior?
Goals are important to motivate the behavior initially but once strong habits form, goals are no longer necessary
Shifting the weight of self-regulation from willpower to healthy habits can help people stay on track toward their long-term goals

4. Today’s talk 1) Test the conditions under which habits form
Repetition?
Deliberative mindset?
2) Asses how habits maintain behavior over time
When intentions change?

5. hypotheses Effect of practice on habit formation
Effect of deliberation on habit formation
C-R associations & maintenance
Ask as questions
For example: What is the effect of practice on habit formation? Stronger habits with more practice or less practice?
Does deliberation have an effect on habit formation? It should b/c the C-R assoc should be automatic, and thinking about the process too much while actively learning should get in the way of forming the habit
We’re interested in directly measuring the C-R associations that are formed as a measure of habit strength – any ideas about how we’ll measure them? (RT) And what should we find? (Ps with faster RTs = stronger habits should be more likely to maintain those habits over time, even when intentions shift)

6. Across 3 studies, 331 Ps formed habits to make sushi by adding ingredients to a recipe in a specified order according to instructions
Using a flash game that we adapted for this purpose, we trained participants to make sushi using particular ingredients in a specific order.

7. Deliberation manipulation
Study 1 (n = 44)
Repeat: “You’re now going to play a game in which you learn how to make sushi.”
Study 2 (n = 73)
Deliberate: Study 1 + “Try to learn the task because you’ll need to do it later without any instructions.”
Study 3 (n = 214)
Repeat (Study 1) vs Deliberate: Study 1 + "Pay close attention to the steps and try to learn them because you’ll need to remember each step and do it without any instructions at the end of the study."

8. Participants completed 2-3 vs 10 practice trials to learn how to make sushi according to the recipe
HABIT FORMATION

9. Habit strength measure: Context-Response Associations
Mean RTs for all correct trials

10. Habit strength measure: Self-Report Behavioral Automaticity Index
Mean across all 4 items

11. intention change manipulation
Customize your sushi by choosing a new ingredient. Add the new ingredient after the vinegar step in the recipe. vs

12. Habit persistence measure: 3 sushi trials without instructions
slips/ total Errors
After test, again rated their intentions to add the new ingredient

13. RESULTS 1) Test the conditions under which habits form Repetition?
Deliberative mindset?
2) Asses how habits maintain behavior over time
When intentions change?

14. DELIBERATION IMPEDED HABIT FORMATION Note: Lower RTs are Stronger Associations
Simple effects:
Ps instructed to just repeat the task during practice formed stronger habits with more practice (p = .003)
Ps with deliberate learning instructions did not form stronger habits after 10 practice trials than trials (p = .712)
* Making people too thoughtful about the task impeded their habit formation
Interaction: F(1, 109) = 7.06, p = .009
Interaction: F(1, 208) = 6.46, p = .012

15. Regardless of mindset, Ps with more practice reported more automaticity
So both of these measures suggest that we formed habits during the sushi game
However, it seems that people’s experience of repeating something many times is interpreted as automaticity, whether or not they are actually forming stronger cognitive associations between the particular cue and response

16. RESULTS 1) Test the conditions under which habits form Repetition?
Deliberate mindset?
2) Asses how habits maintain behavior over time
When intentions change?

17. Habits should maintain behavior even if ps intend to do something new
When I continue making sushi, I intend to use the new ingredient. (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree)

18. Habits persist despite changing intentions

19. More practiced behaviors were maintained if habits were formed
No mediation for Ps with deliberative instructions
Habit slips are our measure of persistence – more slips is more that the participant is failing to follow their intention to use the new ingredient and instead falling back on their habit for the original recipe they learned
As we saw in both Studies 1&2 and in Study 3, the number of sushi practice trials predicted the habit strength of the cognitive association that was formed. That habit strength in turn predicted whether Ps would follow their intention to use the new ingredient or fall back on their old habit (those with strong habits fell back into their habits for the original sushi recipe). However, this mediation relationship was moderated by the instructions received –it was not significant for those who received deliberative instructions.
As these models show, more repetitive—although not deliberative—practice yielded stronger habit associations, which in turn promoted habit slips of falling back on the original recipe.

20. Sources of habit persistence
Ps with stronger habit associations slipped back into repeating the original recipe, controlling for whether or not their intentions shifted.

21. Summary
What are the conditions under which habits form? Maintain behavior?
More practice produced stronger habits… unless Ps were deliberative
Deliberative mindset impeded habit formation
Even with strong intentions to do something new, Ps fell back into their established habits
Behavior maintenance via habits was explained by formation of strong cognitive associations (and maybe intention change)

22. Application to intervention
Formation of healthy habits may be a key to maintenance of behavior change that lasts
Keep people on track for their long-term goals despite temporary shifts in goals and willpower
Use habits to your advantage – rather than a barrier to change, they can become an ally!
Make sure the desired behavior can be performed easily without much thought in the moment – too much deliberation will impede habit formation

23. More info: jenlabrecque.com
Thank you