Cognitive control and the non-conscious regulation of health behavior

We agree with Buckley et al.(2014) that self-control processes are one important aspect of physical activity and sedentary behavior regulation, and that self-control training is an important avenue for health behavior intervention research. However, we believe the role of non-conscious regulatory processes of health behaviors was understated in that the focus was mostly on how non-conscious temptations can bias one toward unhealthy behaviors. We take this opportunity to extend this discussion by highlighting that health behaviors are also regulated by non-conscious processes, and that cognitive control training may also work to regulate behavior through these regulatory pathways.