Topic 4: Habits Flashcards
Habit definition
A settle or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.
An automated response that is cued (from an external stimulus) by aspects of the performance context like the environment.
Habitual control
Comes from dopamine and dorsolateral striatum
Cognitive search, planning, and reseaoning
Comes from prefrontal cortex
“Touching the void” habits
Climber falls, breaks his leg. Starts a habit with bend, hop, rest.
Habit slips
Whenever an intended action and a habit share a performance context or some action component, the habit overrides the expected action
Habit slips - Pigeons
Trained to peck button for food. Pigeon formed a habit of pecking the button, that even when there isn’t food, they’ll still do it.
Habit slips - Rats
Rats trained to navigate maze, with R of food at the end. In one session, food is also put in the middle of the maze, but rats ran past due to their habit.
Forming a habit
Frequent consistent pairing of a cue and an action, action become automatic response to the cue.
How long does it take to form a habit?
18-254 days
Breaking a habit
Frequent violation of the pairing of a cue and corresponding response.
Focus habit
- Preparation
- Intense activity
- Break
Preparation stage (focus habit)
- Make a clear goal
- Create a checkbox
- Try to schedule all work in 25 minute chunks
- Plan work based on how many 25 minute chunks it will take
Intense activity stage (focus habit)
- Set a timer for 25 min
- Use special app for deep work
- Work for 25 minutes non-stop
- Uninterrupted work is parammount
Break stage (focus habit)
- Never go longer than 25 minutes of work
- Take a few minutes break after 25 minute chunk
- Move around
- Get in a different environment
