Control processes in goal-directed behaviour: Reflections on the castaway’s dilemma Anthony Dickinson University of Cambridge The concept of goal-directed behaviour refers to those actions that are mediated by the interaction between knowledge of the action-outcome contingency and the current incentive value of the outcome. Over the last decade or so, procedures developed within the field of animal learning have informed the investigation of human goal-directed behaviour. Studies using the outcome revaluation procedures show that the goal-directed action develops during the third year in humans and engages the medial prefrontal cortex in both humans and rats. Furthermore, the study of transfer of control and biconditional discriminations points to a role for ideo-motor processes in the goal-directed behaviour of both species. Finally, conflict between different actions appears to engage common control processes. Taken together, this research suggests that humans share basic decision and action selection processes with other animals.