What influences the selection of contextual cues when starting a new routine behaviour? An exploratory study

Abstract

Background: Contextual cues play an important role in facilitating behaviour change. They not only support memory but may also help to make the new behaviour automatic through the formation of new routines. However, previous research shows that when people start a new behaviour, they tend to select cues that lack effectiveness for prompting behaviour. Therefore, it is important to understand what influences cue selection, as this can help to identify acceptable cues, which in turn could inform future behaviour change interventions to help people select cues that best fit their context and so ensure continued repetition. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study to investigate what cues people select, how, and what influences their decisions. We recruited 39 participants and asked them to take vitamin C tablets daily for 3 weeks and later interviewed them about their experience. Quantitative habit strength and memory measures were taken for descriptive purposes. Results: Cue selection was primarily influenced by a desire to minimise effort, e.g. keeping related objects at hand or in a visible place; prior experience with similar behaviours (regardless of whether the cues used in the past were reliable or not); and beliefs about effective approaches. In addition, we found that suboptimal remembering strategies involved reliance on a single cue and loosely defined plans that do not specify cues. Moreover, for many participants, identifying optimal cues required trial and error, as people were rarely able to anticipate in advance what approach would work best for them. Conclusions: Future behaviour change interventions that rely on routine behaviours might fruitfully include the provision of educational information regarding what approaches are suboptimal (single factors, vaguely defined plans) and what is most likely to work (combining multiple clearly defined cues). They should also assess people's existing beliefs about how to best remember specific behaviours as such beliefs can either enhance or inhibit the cues they select. Finally, interventions should account for the fact that early failures to remember are part of the process of developing a reliable remembering strategy and to be expected.

Grounding Motivation for Behaviour Change

“…This is consistent with research on the role of motor simulations in action control and mental practice (e.g., Driskell et al, 1994;Eschen et al, 2007;Jeannerod, 1995Jeannerod, , 2001. In complex and multidimensional situations of daily life, such simulations likely not only include a single visual cue, as would be the case in laboratory experiments, but other elements of the situation as welland the degree to which this is the case may increase the effectiveness of this planning technique (see also Stawarz et al, 2020).…”

Exploring Workers' Subjective Experiences of Habit Formation in Cybersecurity: A Qualitative Survey

“…This reflects the need for solutions that require minimal input, and that maximize the mental and physical resources available for their primary task, and as literature suggesting that people often select the easiest cues to implement. 29 Others used more visual reminders, such as notes to themselves (''Before it became a habit we had notes on our monitors to remember to lock our computers,'' P18), or using the pertinent item itself as a reminder (''Tried to build systemic habits by always having things in their certain place, that way if my pass was ever missing or not on my person in work hours it would immediately stand out as obvious,'' P177). The use of external cues is well CYBERSECURITY HABIT FORMATION IN THE WORKPLACE established, especially in the initial stages of starting a new behavior, 30,31 suggesting that this could be an effective strategy for employees.…”

A Participatory Sensing Study to Understand the Problems Older Adults Faced in Developing Medication-Taking Habits

“…Thus, behaviorists consider that a habit can be acquired through the repetition of behavior in the presence of contextual cues [ 12 ]. In this approach, contextual cues reflect features of the environment in which the planned activity typically occurs [ 20 , 21 ]. Therefore, they act as reminders, prompting people to act consciously [ 20 , 21 ].…”

“…In this approach, contextual cues reflect features of the environment in which the planned activity typically occurs [ 20 , 21 ]. Therefore, they act as reminders, prompting people to act consciously [ 20 , 21 ]. A cue refers to the place, time, used objects, and daily routines associated with the environment where the medication taking needs to be performed [ 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…A clinical trial demonstrated that training older adults to support the formation of medication-taking habits improves their medication consistency; however, it should be noted that the improvements were sustained only for as long as the researchers maintained frequent contact with the participants [ 26 ]. The studies conducted so far have been limited to identifying the daily routines most used as contextual cues of medication by older adults [ 27 , 28 ], understanding how these are used as compensatory memory strategies [ 25 ], and understanding the factors that influence the selection of daily routines to be used as contextual cues [ 20 ]. As these studies have collected data through self-report techniques such as surveys and interviews conducted in a single session, they provide limited evidence about the effect of the cue-based strategies selected by older adults on the consistency of their medication-taking behaviors.…”