• Question: Is a habit a learned or unlearned behavior?

    Asked by jessohbrien to Carol, Ellie, John, Philip, Rebecca on 2 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Carol White

      Carol White answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Hi jessohbrien – another great question!!

      A habit is an “acquired” pattern of behaviour. So it is a learned behaviour! Sometime it’s concious, but usually it’s completely subconscious. You often don’t even realise you’ve developed a habit!

    • Photo: Rebecca Lacey

      Rebecca Lacey answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Thanks jessohbrien – this is the sort of question I love answering!!

      Habits are a series of steps learned gradually (ie they are learned behaviours) but sometimes we don’t know we are doing it! Habit formation takes place in the basal ganglia in the brain. The basal ganglia is also involved in eye movements.

      The area of the basal ganglia that has been particularly associated with habit formation is called the “striatum”. When we repetitively do something the “striatum” starts to associate a particular context/habit with a reward (dopamine release).

      Often we don’t know we have developed a habit and when we do realise we stop doing it! Only tasks which are repeated over a period of time have the potential to become habits. This is one reason why bad habits are hard to break

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