In this work we present a simulation study drawn upon a famous ethological example: food-sharing habit of vampire bats in Central America. A norm of reciprocity is introduced when agents are expected to exhibit a cooperative behavior under serious environmental strictures (infrequent but lethal food scarcity). We compare different agents’ architectures (with different levels of cognitive comple...

To identify the factors that disrupt and maintain habit performance, two field experiments tested the conditions under which people eat out of habit, leading them to resist motivational influences. Habitual popcorn eaters at a cinema were minimally influenced by their hunger or how much they liked the food, and they ate equal amounts of stale and fresh popcorn. Yet, mechanisms of automaticity i...

Instrumental behavior can be controlled by goal-directed action-outcome and habitual stimulus-response processes that are supported by anatomically distinct brain systems. Based on previous findings showing that stress modulates the interaction of "cognitive" and "habit" memory systems, we asked in the presented study whether stress may coordinate goal-directed and habit processes in instrument...

The authors considered work habits within an integrated framework of motivated behavior. A distinction made between automatic and controlled action led to 2 measures of work habits: a habit strength measure reflecting the 4 characteristics of automaticity and a measure of work routines under conscious control. Workers at a turkey processing plant (N = 162) responded to an extensive survey of th...

This paper draws upon a consumer survey carried out in Bucharest (Romania) to explore determinants of food choice in a transition economy. An adapted version of the Theory of Reasoned Action was developed. This included attitude toward intention, habit and preference as independent variables. The structural equations modelling carried out in 'Analysis of MOment Structures' AMOS showed a signifi...

Stress modulates instrumental action in favor of habit processes that encode the association between a response and preceding stimuli and at the expense of goal-directed processes that learn the association between an action and the motivational value of the outcome. Here, we asked whether this stress-induced shift from goal-directed to habit action is dependent on noradrenergic activation and ...

BACKGROUND Effective, low-cost approaches are needed to enhance dietary behavior change. While both video and tailoring technology have been effective interventions to improve diet, these approaches have never been combined to study the effectiveness of tailored videos. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of Good For You!, a randomized trial that tested the efficacy of innovativ...