I’m not sure if automatic, learned behavior such as driving is at all the same as truly ‘involuntary’ behavior, like bile secretion and body temperature/heart rate. To me, it seems that the voluntary behavior of driving has just been ‘chunked’ so that decisions occur at a higher level. Instead of deciding ‘ok, now I will put on my turn signal, I will slow down and check my blind spot and look in my mirrors and if there’s no cars coming I’ll make a left-hand turn’, the decision is ‘i’ll turn left on the way to Suzy’s house.’ If the route to Suzy’s house is also memorized to the point of being automatic, the voluntary point is leaving home and the decision is ‘I’ll drive to Suzy’s house’.
Even a novice driver’s behavior is chunked; you don’t think of each individual muscle contraction involved in turning the steering wheel. For most people, this is already learned and chunked. It’s still voluntary.
I’m not sure if automatic, learned behavior such as driving is at all the same as truly ‘involuntary’ behavior, like bile secretion and body temperature/heart rate. To me, it seems that the voluntary behavior of driving has just been ‘chunked’ so that decisions occur at a higher level. Instead of deciding ‘ok, now I will put on my turn signal, I will slow down and check my blind spot and look in my mirrors and if there’s no cars coming I’ll make a left-hand turn’, the decision is ‘i’ll turn left on the way to Suzy’s house.’ If the route to Suzy’s house is also memorized to the point of being automatic, the voluntary point is leaving home and the decision is ‘I’ll drive to Suzy’s house’.
Even a novice driver’s behavior is chunked; you don’t think of each individual muscle contraction involved in turning the steering wheel. For most people, this is already learned and chunked. It’s still voluntary.