Exploring the relationship between actions, habits, and automaticity in an action sequence task
- 1Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York 10016, USA
- 2Brooklyn College, City University of New York, New York 11210, USA
- Corresponding author: egarr{at}gradcenter.cuny.edu
Abstract
It is tempting to equate the automatization of an action sequence with the formation of a habit. However, the term “habit” specifically implies a failure to evaluate future consequences to guide behavior. To test if automatized sequences become habitual, we trained rats on an action sequence task for either 20 or 60 d and then conducted reward devaluation tests. While both groups showed equivalent goal-directed performance of the trained action sequence on a global measure of behavior, sequence initiation and completion times were differentially sensitive to outcome devaluation in moderately and extensively trained rats.
Footnotes
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article is online at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.048645.118.
- Received October 22, 2018.
- Accepted March 4, 2019.
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