A Goal-Directed Account of Action Slips: The Reliance on Old Contingencies

Abstract

People often keep engaging in behaviors that used to be successful in the past but which are knowingly no longer effective in the current situation, so called action slips. Such action slips are often explained with stimulus-driven processes in which behavior is caused by a stimulus-response association and without information about the outcome of the behavior. This process is contrasted with a goal-directed process in which behavior is selected because it is expected to lead to a desired outcome. Failing to act in line with changes in the outcome, is taken as evidence for stimulus-driven processes. Stimulus-driven processes are assumed to get installed after overtraining and to be deployed under poor operating conditions. In line with this, previous research has found that action slips are more likely to occur after extensive training and when under time pressure. We propose an alternative goal-directed explanation according to which action slips are not caused by a stimulus-driven process, but rather by a goal-directed process that relies on old, no longer accurate, outcome information. In the current study, participants learned four stimulus-response-outcome contingencies during a single (i.e., moderate training) or a four-day training schedule (i.e., extensive training). Afterwards two contingencies were reversed. Results show that after extensive training and when under time pressure, participants not only committed more action slips but also reported more old response-outcome contingencies in line with these action slips. This is consistent with the goal-directed explanation that action slips result from a reliance on old, no longer accurate outcome information.

The role of goal-directed and habitual processes in food consumption under stress after outcome devaluation with taste aversion.

“…Instead, we found that stressed participants reduced responding for liquids that were devalued, thereby providing support for the operation of goal-directed processes under stress. These findings are in line with other recent theoretical and empirical work (Buabang, Boddez, et al, 2021; Buabang, Köster, et al, 2021; De Houwer et al, 2018; Hogarth, 2020, 2022; Hommel & Wiers, 2017; Kruglanski & Szumowska, 2020).…”

The Role of Goal-Directed and Habitual Processes in Food Consumption Under Stress After Outcome Devaluation with Taste Aversion

“…These findings are in line with other recent theoretical and empirical work (Buabang et al, 2021a(Buabang et al, , 2021bDe Houwer et al, 2018;Hogarth, 2020Hogarth, , 2022Hommel & Wiers, 2017;…”

The relationship between habits and motor skills in humans

“…Writing thus acts as a stimulus that effectively creates a new goal of alleviating anxiety (i.e., a stimulus-goal association), and we choose to drink coffee to achieve that goal. This example illustrates the seemingly contradictory idea of a 'goal-directed habitual action' by which a particular stimulus habitually triggers a specific goal which is then pursued in a flexible manner [98][99][100][101][102]. Such a mechanism has been proposed as a more compelling explanation for drug-seeking and other pathological habits, given the flexible ends to which a user might resort to obtain drugs [74,103,104].…”

“…If some of these underlying computations become habitual whereas others do not, this will result in some aspects of behavior being habitual and inflexible and others aspects of behavior remaining flexible (Figure 5B,C). Indeed, multiple sources of evidence, from following life routines [116][117][118][119], decisionmaking [101,120,121], categorical learning [122], and slip-of-action research [102], have begun to demonstrate that different intermediate computations can become obligatory -each leading to distinct patterns of overt habitual behavior ( [123] for evidence in a non-human animal).…”