Much research has been dedicated to understanding the psychological and neural bases of
goal-directed action, yet the relationship between context and goal-directed action is not …

Contingency theories of goal-directed action propose that experienced disjunctions between
an action and its specific consequences, as well as conjunctions between these events …

Considerable behavioral data indicate that operant actions can become habitual, as
demonstrated by insensitivity to changes in the action–outcome contingency and in …

Two learning mechanisms contribute to decision-making: goal-directed actions and the
“habit” system, by which action-outcome and stimulus-response associations are formed …

Contingency learning is fundamental to cognition. Knowledge about environmental
contingencies allows behavioral flexibility, as executive control processes accommodate the …

The role of the hippocampus in goal-directed action is currently unclear; studies
investigating this issue have produced contradictory results. Here we reconcile these …

Adaptive motivated behavior requires predictive internal representations of the environment,
and surprising events are indications for encoding new representations of the environment …

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has long been considered a critical site in action
control. However, recent evidence indicates that the contribution of cortical areas to goal …

Instrumental conditioning is considered to involve at least two distinct learning systems: a
goal-directed system that learns associations between responses and the incentive value of …

Highlights•Goal-directed actions are initially context-dependent but become context-
independent over time.•Goal-directed actions are context-dependent when conflicting …