McCloskey Kiran, Johnson Blair T
Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States.
Front Psychol. 2019 Jul 24;10:1556. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01556. eCollection 2019.
Habits have been proposed to develop as a function of the extent to which a behavior is rewarded, performed frequently, and executed in a stable context. The present study examines how each of these factors are associated with behavioral automaticity across a broad variety of behaviors drawn from previous habits research. This study further assesses how perceived complexity of the behavior influences the associations of rewards, frequency, and contextual stability with automaticity.
Participants ( = 459) completed an online survey assessing their experiences and engagement with 25 different behaviors, including exercise, handwashing, smoking, and medication adherence, among others. Exploratory factor analysis validated a short, relatively novel scale of perceived behavioral complexity, and multilevel analyses grouped by participant were used to examine the factors that contribute to automaticity.
Across behaviors, frequency, contextual stability, and perceived rewards were positively associated with automaticity. Perceived complexity was negatively associated with automaticity and moderated the influence of contextual stability and rewards, but not frequency, on automaticity. Both contextual stability and rewards were stronger predictors of automaticity when behavioral complexity was high rather than low, as predicted; in addition, when contextual stability was high, more complex behaviors showed automaticity than simpler behaviors.
The results of this study confirm that behavioral frequency, rewards, and contextual stability are each independently associated with automaticity across a spectrum of behaviors. This study further demonstrates that perceived complexity of a behavior moderates the extent to which contextual stability and rewards are associated with automaticity. The results affirm a need to further understand the components of habits and how they differ across varying behaviors.
习惯被认为是随着行为得到奖励的程度、执行频率以及在稳定情境中进行而逐渐形成的。本研究考察了这些因素中的每一个如何与来自先前习惯研究的广泛行为中的行为自动化相关联。本研究还进一步评估了行为的感知复杂性如何影响奖励、频率和情境稳定性与自动化之间的关联。
参与者（n = 459）完成了一项在线调查，评估他们对25种不同行为的体验和参与情况，包括锻炼、洗手、吸烟和药物依从性等。探索性因素分析验证了一个简短且相对新颖的感知行为复杂性量表，并采用按参与者分组的多层次分析来考察促成自动化的因素。
在各种行为中，频率、情境稳定性和感知到的奖励与自动化呈正相关。感知复杂性与自动化呈负相关，并调节了情境稳定性和奖励对自动化的影响，但未调节频率对自动化的影响。正如所预测的那样，当行为复杂性高而非低时，情境稳定性和奖励都是自动化更强的预测因素；此外，当情境稳定性高时，更复杂的行为比简单行为表现出更高的自动化程度。
本研究结果证实，行为频率、奖励和情境稳定性在一系列行为中各自独立地与自动化相关联。本研究进一步表明，行为的感知复杂性调节了情境稳定性和奖励与自动化相关联的程度。结果表明有必要进一步了解习惯的组成部分以及它们在不同行为中的差异。
