Human behavior consists in large parts of action sequences that are often repeated in mostly the same way. Through extensive repetition, sequential responses become automatic or habitual, but our environment often confronts us with events to which we have to react flexibly and in a goal-directed manner. To assess how implicitly learned action sequences interfere with goal-directed control, we developed a novel behavioral paradigm in which we combined action sequence learning through repetition with a goal-directed task component. So-called dual-target trials require the goal-directed selection of the response with the highest reward probability in a fast succession of trials with short response deadlines. Importantly, the response primed by the learned action sequence is sometimes different from that required by the goal-directed task. As expected, we found that participants learned the action sequence through repetition, as evidenced by reduced reaction times (RT) and error rates (ER), while still acting in a goal-directed manner in dual-target trials. Specifically, we found that the learned action sequence biased choices in the goal-directed task toward the sequential response, and this effect was more pronounced the better individuals had learned the sequence. Our novel task may help shed light on the acquisition of automatic behavioral patterns and habits through extensive repetition, allows to assess positive features of habitual behavior (e.g., increased response speed and reduced error rates), and importantly also the interaction of habitual and goal-directed behaviors under time pressure.
Human behaviour consists in large parts of action sequences that are often repeated in mostly the same way. Through such extensive repetitions, these response patterns can become automatic or habitual, but our environment often confronts us with events to which we have to react flexibly and in a goal-directed manner. In order to understand how implicitly learned and automatized motor sequences interact with an interfering goal-directed task, we developed a novel behavioural paradigm in which we combined implicit sequence learning through repetition with an explicitly instructed goal-directed task. This goal-directed task requires the selection of the option with the higher reward probability, in a fast succession of trials with short response deadlines. Within a motor sequence task, participants were offered two response options and were instructed to choose the one with the higher reward probability. As expected, we found that participants learned the motor sequence through repetition and acted, in trials with two response options, in a goal-directed manner. In addition, there was evidence of a strengthening of the learned action sequence from the first to the second day of the experiment. We found a rich and telling pattern of interactions between automatic and goal-directed behavior, expressed in reaction times, choices and error rates. This novel paradigm may help to shed light on the development of automatic behavioural patterns and habits that arise through extensive repetition, and their interaction with goal-directed behaviours under time pressure.
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