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Dissociable habits of response preparation versus response initiation

Nature Human Behaviour volume 9, pages 1941–1958 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Behaviours we repeat often tend to become habitual. The process of habit formation in humans is commonly studied in the context of learning an arbitrary association between stimuli and responses. Assessing whether or not this association becomes habitual usually involves testing either whether participants can withhold certain responses or whether participants can generate different responses to certain stimuli. However, studies using these two methods have yielded conflicting findings. Here we propose that this discrepancy arises because these approaches target distinct forms of habit associated with different components of action control: response initiation and response preparation, respectively. Through a series of experiments (total n = 215), along with computational models, we show that these two approaches indeed measure dissociable forms of habit. Our results illustrate that a given behaviour can become habitual in multiple, qualitatively different ways, with important implications for how habits can best be promoted or eliminated.

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Fig. 1: Experimental procedures.
Fig. 2: Habitual behaviour revealed in the Remapping group but not in the Withholding group.
Fig. 3: A computational model confirmed that response preparation was habitual, but response initiation was not.
Fig. 4: Habitual behaviour revealed in the Remapping group but not in the Withholding group when task difficulty was matched.
Fig. 5: Habitual behaviour revealed in both the Remapping group and the Withholding group for a pre-established association.
Fig. 6: Habitual initiation and habitual preparation are distinct processes.

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Data availability

The data supporting the results of this study are available via GitHub at https://github.com/YueDu-Science/Preparation-versus-Initiation.

Code availability

The code for reproducing the experiment and the results is available via GitHub at https://github.com/YueDu-Science/Preparation-versus-Initiation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. 2218406 to A.M.H.

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  1. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Yue Du & Adrian M. Haith

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  1. Yue Du
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Y.D. and A.M.H. conceptualized the experiments and wrote the manuscript. Y.D. programmed the task, collected and analysed the data, and prepared the figures.

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Correspondence to Yue Du.

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Du, Y., Haith, A.M. Dissociable habits of response preparation versus response initiation. Nat Hum Behav 9, 1941–1958 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02215-4

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