The European Health Psychologist ehps.net/ehp Background and

There has been a rapid increase in the use of planning techniques in interventions to promote health-related behaviour (Abraham, Kok, Schaalma, & Luszczynska, 2011). The proliferation of interventions using planning has largely been a direct response to the considerable literature which has recognised the limitations of intentions as a predictor of behaviour (Dekker, 2008; Sheeran, 2002; Webb & Sheeran, 2006), the so-called intention-behaviour ‘gap’. Recent theoretical models incorporating both motivational and volitional phases have sought to resolve this issue by examining the role that furnishing intentions with planning exercises plays in improving the link between intentions and behaviour (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006; Schwarzer, 2001; Sheeran, Milne, Webb, & Gollwitzer, 2005). Prominent among these planning interventions are implementation intention and action planning techniques. These techniques aim to bolster or augment intentions with means to promote recall and enactment of the intended behaviour. These planning techniques are two of the most recognised and frequently-applied components in health behaviour interventions (Adriaanse, Vinkers