Breaking Habits with Implementation Intentions: Adriaanse et al. (2011)

Question 1

intention behaviour gap =

Answer 1

the gap between one’s intention (goals) and their actual behaviour. people often have a hard time achieving thier goals: the way in which goals are pursued plays an important role in this.

Question 2

habit formation=

Answer 2

habits develop when people repeatedly perform a specific behaviour in a stable situation to pursue their goals. the repeated co-occurrence creates a direct situation-behaviour association, which strengthens each time they co-occur.

Question 3

handig en minder handig aan habits

Answer 3

+ allow for efficient performance of daily routines
- individuals intentions may change, whilst habits are not easily adapted.

Question 4

implementation intentions=

Answer 4

simple action plans that specify where, when, and how one will perform an intended behaviour:

‘if i am in situation X, then i will perform goal-directed behaviour Y’

(in contrast: basic intentions only specify the end state: i want to achieve Z. IIs have been found to promote goal-directed action)

Question 5

‘If I watch television and feel hungry, then I eat fruit’ (II) is more specific than ‘I’m going to eat healthier’.

Answer 5

oke

Question 6

working mechanisms of IIS

Answer 6

1. cue accessibility (specifying a situation for enacting one’s intentions in advance leads to a highly accessible mental representation of the situation in memory. thus, it can be more easily detected and used to accomplish one’s goals once one is in the situation).
2. automatic (instant habit theory): linking the situation to a goal-directed behaviour, the if-then structure gives the cue the control, which results in automatic elicitation of the behaviour when the situation is encountered.

Question 7

waarom zouden IIs ook bestaande, ongewilde gewoontes kunnen breken?

Answer 7

because they activate similar automatic responses that only differ in origin: being the result of repeated actions (habits) or conscious planning (IIs).

Question 8

hoe heten IIs die tegen ongewild gedrag ingaan

Answer 8

counter-habitual implementation intentions

Question 9

counter-habitual implementation intentions=

Answer 9

IIs that are used to link a new, desired behavior to a situation that previously triggered a habitual behavior. These types of IIs have been found effective in changing several types of habits but little is known about the cognitive effects or underlying mechanisms of CIIs.

Question 10

3 studie methodes om te onderzoeken hoe IIs de existing habit overrulen

Answer 10

• Study 1: participants formulated IIs that specify the replacement of a habitual snack (= means) they usually take at home by an alternative snack or the replacement of a habitual drink they usually take at a bar by an alternative drink.
• Study 2: participants were asked to specifically replace their habitual snack or drink by a healthier alternative.
• Study 3: participants formulated the IIs with their own choice of snack but also their own choice of critical cue (instead of the predetermined bar and home situation). This cue could be anything that was the most frequently occurring reason for eating the snack (time of day, a feeling, a place).

Question 11

primed lexical decision task=

Answer 11

used to measure the strength of cue-response associations. participants are shown a prime (not consciously perceived!) on each trial, followed by a word or nonword. they have to identify whether it is a word as quickly as possible.

Question 12

uitkomst van lexical decision task betekenis

Answer 12

quick response means a strong mental association between the prime and the word. slow response means a weak association.

Question 13

wat waren de target en prime woorden in dit experiment

Answer 13

target = the generated IIs means (snacks, drinks), irrelevant words and non words
primes = cue-words (bar, home) or an irrelevant word

Question 14

resultaten van deze studie

Answer 14

• Control condition: participants reacted quicker to the habitual means compared to the alternative means when no IIs were formulated.
• IIs condition: after formulating IIs, participants reacted quicker to the alternative means than to the habitual means. MAAR: this effect was not significant.

Question 15

conclusie

Answer 15

When no IIs are formulated, habitual means are more accessible (stronger cue-response link) than alternatives when encountering the critical cue.

In contrast, after forming IIs, this is no longer the case: there is no longer a cognitive advantage for the habitual response. Importantly, the new cue-response association formed by IIs is not significantly stronger than the old cue-habit association. Thus, it seems that the habitual and alternative response are now evenly accessible, so that people can choose between them. Over time, the new habit can develop.