Investigating the balance between goal-directed and habitual control in experimental and real-life settings

Do people differ in their propensity to form habits? The current study related individual differences in habitual performance on the slips-of-action task to habit formation in real life. To this end, we developed a novel key-cover procedure that controls for the amount of repetition and motivation within a naturalistic setting. Participants received a key cover for the key to their home, which after several weeks was switched with a key cover that was previously attached to a dummy key. Participants recorded effort, time, attention, and mistakes in the key-selection process. Results were in line with established properties of habits, as attention decreased in the learning phase, yet effort, time, and mistakes increased after the key-cover switch. Performance on the slips-of-action task correlated negatively with changes in attention in the real-life key-cover task. This negative correlation may reflect that flexible behavioral adjustment requires more attention in people with a relatively weak goal-directed system

A qualitative reasoning model of algal bloom in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (DDBR)

This paper presents a Qualitative Reasoning model of the algal bloom phenomenon and its effects in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (DDBR) in Romania. Qualitative Reasoning models represent processes and their cause-effect relationships in a flexible and conceptually rich manner and as such can be used as instruments for capturing and sharing explanations of how systems behave. The DDBR model is based on expert knowledge and captures the main factors contributing to the dynamics of this aquatic ecosystem. Focal points of the model are the relationships between temperature, water pollution from the Danube catchment area, and cyanotoxins. These factors gravely affect aquatic biota and ultimately human wellbeing. In addition to capturing domain knowledge, this paper discusses solutions for representing typical patterns in ecological systems using Qualitative Reasoning techniques

Model building experiences using Garp3: problems, patterns and debugging

Capturing conceptual knowledge in QR models is becoming of interest to a larger audience of domain experts. Consequently, we have been training several groups to effectively create QR models during the last few years. In this paper we describe our teaching experiences, the issues the modellers encountered and the solutions to solve them in the form of reusable patterns, and finally a structured way to debug models

The river Mesta case study: A qualitative model of dissolved oxygen in aquatic ecosystems

The dynamics of the dissolved oxygen in water bodies is the result of complex interactions involving physical and biological processes. Understanding how the balance of these influences determines the amount of oxygen available for living organisms is a key factor to interpret the water body conditions, and eventually to use dissolved oxygen as an indicator of the water quality. In this paper we present a Qualitative Reasoning model developed to improve understanding of changes in the amount of dissolved oxygen in different segments of the river Mesta in Bulgaria. Effects on dissolved oxygen result from changes in physical, chemical and biological processes induced both by natural and anthropogenic activities within the watershed. To explore the possibility of establishing a landmark value that may change according to specific conditions, we developed the concept of flexible value mapping, which dynamically captures changes in the dependencies between the landmark value and the values of other quantities as the conditions of the system change during the simulations. The paper also discusses the concept of dominance of a specific process over other competing processes affecting a quantity. With the model described here, we aim to discuss possible solutions to interesting modelling problems and to provide the community of ecological modellers support for educational activities and water resources management