DrPoppy Watson

1. The role of habits in our behavioural repertoire

To what degree do stimuli in our environment control behaviour? Dual-process models of action control argue that we sometimes act in a goal-directed manner, sensitive to the consequences of our actions. However, following extensive repetition, behaviours can become relatively automatic and triggered by contexts rather than driven by anticipation of consequences. Poppy has been involved in several projects studying human habits and written theoretical reviews on this topic, see e.g.,

Watson, P., Gladwin, T. E., Verhoeven, A. A. C., & de Wit, S. (2022). Investigating habits in humans with a symmetrical outcome-revaluation task. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01922-4

Watson, P., O’Callaghan, C., Perkes, I., Bradfield, L., & Turner, K. (2022). Making habits measurable beyond what they are not: A focus on associative dual-process models. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 142, 104869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104869


2. Pavlovian Approach and Avoidance biases

Cues that signal reward or punishment can have powerful effects on ongoing instrumental behaviour. Poppy has studied the effects of reward- and punishment-associated stimuli on behaviour in a number of ways. Firstly, in the appetitive domain she has studied how cues associated with monetary rewards or food rewards can become motivational magnets - capturing and holding attention (despite participants' attempts to ignore such stimuli). She is studying how individual differences in the tendency to get 'stuck' on these stimuli relate to individual differences in problematic alcohol and drug use as well as compulsive eating behaviour. She has also examined how cues associated with rewards can influence choice behaviour. For reviews detailing some of this work, check out:

Pearson, D., Watson, P., Albertella, L., & Le Pelley, M. E. (2022). Attentional economics links value-modulated attentional capture and decision-making. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00053-z

Watson, P., Wiers, R. W., Hommel, B., & de Wit, S. (2018). Motivational sensitivity of outcome-response priming: Experimental research and theoretical models. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-018-1449-2

In the punishment domain, Poppy has a number of projects currently running to examine how stimuli associated with punishment can bias attention and behaviour. These projects include 1. examining the evidence for delayed disengagement from signals of threat as a function of anxiety, and 2. examining whether individuals suffering from e.g., subclinical depression or chronic pain are more sensitive to stimuli that signal punishment, with biased avoidance tendencies relative to healthy controls. You can read about some of this work here:

Watson, P., Pearson, D., Wiers, R. W., & Le Pelley, M. E. (2019). Prioritizing pleasure and pain: Attentional capture by reward-related and punishment-related stimuli. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 26, 107–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.12.002

3. Interventions for mental health

Finally, Poppy is involved in a number of projects designed to test the efficacy of novel interventions in various mental health disorders. This includes "Cognitive bias modification for enhancing treatment efficacy in alcohol use disorder: pilot study of an adapted protocol aimed at reducing compulsive alcohol use in treatment seekers" https://osf.io/z5d6k and "Treatment principles embedded in a table-top role-playing game: enhancing treatment efficacy and treatment outcomes in a community mental-health setting” Clinical Trial ID: ACTRN12621000703808

Key Words: associative learning, reward, attention, control, addiction, habits, goal-directed, Pavlovian-instrumental transfer, EEG, eye tracking, fMRI, DTI