Habit is a way of behaving acquired as a second nature and based on previous experience (Dewey 1922). Many everyday motor actions be- come habitual through repetition, but we also develop habits of thought and emotion (Graybiel 2008). Moreover, since we are influenced by social context and social rules, the habits we form are also social habits. This paper will take into account the social side of a habit and the way we mentally represent such an automatic behavior. By acting from repetition to repetition, more and more automatically, we share the same space or the same experience within the same space. And doing that, we learn how to coordinate our social behaviors that are mentally represented be- fore being performed. As a matter of fact, habit is part of both our social life and our embodied knowledge as procedural knowledge. If so, an understanding of experience as a process of habit formation also constitutes a very important aspect of the embodied approach to cognition. How does the mental representation work? Habit performance follows relatively directly from the perception of context cues and thoughts about the behavior, reflecting the tight linkage between an internal action representation and the action itself (James 1890). It reflects associative learning and the formation of context-response associations in procedural memo- ry: once habit forms, perception of the context automatically brings the response to mind, and people often carry out that response (Wood & Rünger 2016, Wood 2002). As you will see, we are prepared to repeat performance when the context cues are encountered again. And, owing to practice, our (social) action will become more accurate and effortless.

Habit: mental representation and the social side

Marsia Barbera
2017-01-01

Abstract

Habit is a way of behaving acquired as a second nature and based on previous experience (Dewey 1922). Many everyday motor actions be- come habitual through repetition, but we also develop habits of thought and emotion (Graybiel 2008). Moreover, since we are influenced by social context and social rules, the habits we form are also social habits. This paper will take into account the social side of a habit and the way we mentally represent such an automatic behavior. By acting from repetition to repetition, more and more automatically, we share the same space or the same experience within the same space. And doing that, we learn how to coordinate our social behaviors that are mentally represented be- fore being performed. As a matter of fact, habit is part of both our social life and our embodied knowledge as procedural knowledge. If so, an understanding of experience as a process of habit formation also constitutes a very important aspect of the embodied approach to cognition. How does the mental representation work? Habit performance follows relatively directly from the perception of context cues and thoughts about the behavior, reflecting the tight linkage between an internal action representation and the action itself (James 1890). It reflects associative learning and the formation of context-response associations in procedural memo- ry: once habit forms, perception of the context automatically brings the response to mind, and people often carry out that response (Wood & Rünger 2016, Wood 2002). As you will see, we are prepared to repeat performance when the context cues are encountered again. And, owing to practice, our (social) action will become more accurate and effortless.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11570/3128013
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