  How to behave efficiently and flexibly is a central problem for understanding
biological agents and creating intelligent embodied AI. It has been well known
that behavior can be classified as two types: reward-maximizing habitual
behavior, which is fast while inflexible; and goal-directed behavior, which is
flexible while slow. Conventionally, habitual and goal-directed behaviors are
considered handled by two distinct systems in the brain. Here, we propose to
bridge the gap between the two behaviors, drawing on the principles of
variational Bayesian theory. We incorporate both behaviors in one framework by
introducing a Bayesian latent variable called "intention". The habitual
behavior is generated by using prior distribution of intention, which is
goal-less; and the goal-directed behavior is generated by the posterior
distribution of intention, which is conditioned on the goal. Building on this
idea, we present a novel Bayesian framework for modeling behaviors. Our
proposed framework enables skill sharing between the two kinds of behaviors,
and by leveraging the idea of predictive coding, it enables an agent to
seamlessly generalize from habitual to goal-directed behavior without requiring
additional training. The proposed framework suggests a fresh perspective for
cognitive science and embodied AI, highlighting the potential for greater
integration between habitual and goal-directed behaviors.
