Operant behavior can reflect the influence of goal-directed and habitual processes. These can be distinguished by changes to response rate following devaluation of the reinforcing outcome. Whether a response is goal directed or habitual depends on whether devaluation affects response rate. Response rate can be decomposed into frequencies of bouts and pauses by analyzing the distribution of interresponse times. This study sought to characterize goal-directed and habitual behaviors in terms of bout-initiation rate, within-bout response rate, bout length, and bout duration. Data were taken from three published studies that compared sensitivity to devaluation following brief and extended training with variable-interval schedules. Analyses focused on goal-directed and habitual responding, a comparison of a habitual response to a similarly trained response that had been converted back to goal-directed status after a surprising event, and a demonstration of contextual control of habit and goal direction in the same subjects. Across experiments and despite responses being clearly distinguished as goal directed and habitual by total response rate, analyses of bout-initiation rate, within-bout rate, bout length, and bout duration did not reveal a pattern that distinguished goal-directed from habitual responding.

中文翻译：

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目标导向和习惯性操作行为的时间结构

操作行为可以反映目标导向和习惯过程的影响。这些可以通过增强结果贬值后响应率的变化来区分。反应是目标导向的还是习惯性的取决于贬值是否影响反应率。通过分析响应时间的分布，可以将响应率分解为发作和暂停的频率。本研究试图从回合起始率、回合内响应率、回合长度和回合持续时间方面来描述目标导向行为和习惯行为。数据取自三项已发表的研究，这些研究比较了短期和长期训练与可变间隔计划对贬值的敏感性。分析的重点是目标导向和习惯性反应，将习惯性反应与经过类似训练的反应进行比较，在令人惊讶的事件后，该反应已转换回目标导向状态，并展示在同一情况下对习惯和目标方向的情境控制。科目。在整个实验中，尽管根据总反应率将反应明确区分为目标导向型反应和习惯性反应，但对回合起始率、回合内率、回合长度和回合持续时间的分析并未揭示区分目标导向型反应和习惯性反应的模式。