Du, Yue; John W. Krakauer and Adrian M. Haith
How do habit and skill relate to one another? Among many traditions of habit re-search, we suggest that 'slip-of-action' habits are the type most likely to relate to motor skill. Habits are traditionally thought of as a property of behavior as a whole. We suggest, however, that habits are better understood at the level of intermediate computations and, at this level, habits can be considered to be equivalent to the phenomenon of automaticity in skill learning - improving speed of performance at the cost of flexibility. We also consider the importance of habits in learning complex tasks given limited cognitive resources, and suggest that de-liberate practice can be viewed as an iterative process of breaking and restructuring habits to improve performance.