Cognitive capacity limitations and Need for Cognition differentially predict reward-induced cognitive effort expenditure

Cognition ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 101-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dasha A. Sandra ◽  
A. Ross Otto
Keyword(s):  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Capacity Limitations

scholarly journals Measuring cognitive effort without difficulty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Fleming ◽  
Oliver Joe Robinson ◽  
Jonathan Paul Roiser
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Effort Discounting ◽  
Switching Task ◽  
Cognition Scale

An important finding in the cognitive effort literature has been that sensitivity to the costs of effort varies between individuals, suggesting that some people find effort more aversive than others. It has been suggested this may explain individual differences in other aspects of cognition; in particular that greater effort sensitivity may underlie some of the symptoms of conditions such as depression and schizophrenia. In this paper we highlight a major problem with existing measures of cognitive effort that hampers this line of research, specifically the confounding of effort and difficulty. This means that behaviour thought to reveal effort costs could equally be explained by cognitive capacity, which influences the frequency of success and thereby the chance of obtaining reward. To address this shortcoming we introduce a new test, the Number Switching Task (NST), specially designed such that difficulty will be unaffected by the effort manipulation and can easily be standardised across participants. In a large, online sample we show that these criteria are met successfully and reproduce classic effort discounting results with the NST. We also demonstrate the use of computational modelling with this task, producing behavioural parameters which can then be associated with other measures, and report a preliminary association with the Need for Cognition scale.

scholarly journals Negative Moderating Effect of General Self-Efficacy on the Relationship between Need for Cognition and Cognitive Effort

2011 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kishore Gopalakrishna Pillai ◽  
Ronald E. Goldsmith ◽  
Michael Giebelhausen
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Boundary Condition ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
General Self Efficacy

This study demonstrates the negative moderating effect of general self-efficacy on the relationship between need for cognition, which refers to stable individual differences in people's tendencies to engage in and enjoy cognitive activity, and cognitive effort. This negative moderating effect of general self-efficacy has been termed “plasticity.” Scholars assume the relationship between need for cognition and cognitive effort is true by definition. The study uses data from 144 U.S. college students and employs moderated regression analysis followed by subgroup analysis to demonstrate plasticity. The results set a boundary condition to the generally presumed relationship between need for cognition and cognitive effort, thereby improving the understanding of how these phenomena are related.

scholarly journals Neural substrates of cognitive capacity limitations

2011 ◽  
Vol 108 (27) ◽  
pp. 11252-11255 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Buschman ◽  
M. Siegel ◽  
J. E. Roy ◽  
E. K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Capacity Limitations

scholarly journals No relation of Need for Cognition to basic executive functions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Gärtner ◽  
Julia Grass ◽  
Max Wolff ◽  
Thomas Goschke ◽  
Anja Strobel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Shape Matching ◽  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Stop Signal ◽  
Self Control

Need for Cognition (NFC) refers to a personality trait describing the relatively stable intrinsic motivation of individuals to invest cognitive effort in cognitive endeavors. Higher NFC is associated with a more elaborated, central information processing style and increased recruitment of resources in cognitively demanding situations. To further clarify the association between cognitive resources and NFC, we examined in two studies how NFC relates to executive functions as basic cognitive abilities. In Study 1, 189 healthy young adults completed a NFC scale and a battery of six commonly used inhibitory control tasks (Stroop, antisaccade, stop-signal, flanker, shape-matching, word-naming). In Study 2, 102 healthy young adults completed the NFC scale and two tasks for each of the three executive functions inhibitory control (go-nogo, stop-signal), shifting (number-letter, color-shape) and working memory updating (two-back, letter-memory). Using a Bayesian approach to correlation analysis, we found no conclusive evidence that NFC was related to any executive function measure. Instead, we obtained even moderate evidence for the null hypothesis. Both studies add to more recent findings that shape the understanding of NFC as a trait that is less characterized by increased cognitive control abilities but rather by increased willingness to invest effort and exert self-control via motivational processes.

scholarly journals Need for cognition does not account for individual differences in metacontrol of decision making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Bolenz ◽  
Maxine F. Profitt ◽  
Fabian Stechbarth ◽  
Ben Eppinger ◽  
Alexander Strobel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Effort

Humans show metacontrol of decision-making towards different reward magnitudes. Specifically, when higher rewards are at stake, individuals increase reliance on a more accurate but cognitively effortful strategy. We investigated whether the personality trait Need for Cognition (NFC) explains individual differences in metacontrol. Based on findings of cognitive effort expenditure in executive functions, we expected more metacontrol in individuals low in NFC. In two independent studies, metacontrol was assessed by means of a decision-making task that dissociates different reinforcement-learning strategies. In contrast to our expectations, NFC did not account for individual differences in metacontrol of decision making. These findings suggest a differential role of NFC for the regulation of cognitive effort in decision making and executive functions.

scholarly journals The Difference Between Saying and Doing: Comparing Subjective and Objective Measures of Effort Among Fifth Graders

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422199677
Author(s):  
Paula Apascaritei ◽  
Simona Demel ◽  
Jonas Radl
Keyword(s):  
Primary Schools ◽  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Delay Of Gratification ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Real Effort ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Effort Provision

The first goal of this study is to examine the capacity of prominent survey-based effort proxies to predict real effort provision in children. Do children who “talk the talk” of hard work also “walk the walk” and make costly effort investments? The second goal is to assess how objective and subjective effort measures are related under two conditions: intrinsic (nonincentivized) motivation and extrinsic (incentivized) motivation. We measure objective “real” effort using three tasks and subjective self-reported effort using four psychological characteristics (conscientiousness, need for cognition, locus of control and delay of gratification) to understand to what extent material incentives affect the cognitive effort of children with different self-reported personalities. Data stem from real-effort experiments carried out with 420 fifth grade students from primary schools in Madrid, Spain. We find that some of the subjective and objective effort measures are positively correlated. Yet the power of personality to predict real effort is only moderate, but greater and more so in the extrinsic than the intrinsic motivation condition. In particular, need for cognition and conscientiousness are the most relevant correlates of objective effort. Overall, we find there is a big difference between saying and doing when it comes to exerting effort, and this difference is even larger when there are no direct material incentives in place to reward effort provision.

Cognitive Processing of Miscommunication in Interactive Listening: An Evaluation of Listener Indecision and Cognitive Effort

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Roche ◽  
Arkady Zgonnikov ◽  
Laura M. Morett
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Mouse Tracking ◽  
Computer Mouse ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Computer Mouse Tracking ◽  
Listening Task ◽  
Processing Effort

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the social and cognitive underpinnings of miscommunication during an interactive listening task. Method An eye and computer mouse–tracking visual-world paradigm was used to investigate how a listener's cognitive effort (local and global) and decision-making processes were affected by a speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication. Results Experiments 1 and 2 found that an environmental cue that made a miscommunication more or less salient impacted listener language processing effort (eye-tracking). Experiment 2 also indicated that listeners may develop different processing heuristics dependent upon the speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication, exerting a significant impact on cognition and decision making. We also found that perspective-taking effort and decision-making complexity metrics (computer mouse tracking) predict language processing effort, indicating that instances of miscommunication produced cognitive consequences of indecision, thinking, and cognitive pull. Conclusion Together, these results indicate that listeners behave both reciprocally and adaptively when miscommunications occur, but the way they respond is largely dependent upon the type of ambiguity and how often it is produced by the speaker.

Investment Traits and Intelligence in Adulthood

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie von Stumm
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Intelligence Tests ◽  
Crystallized Intelligence ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

Intelligence-as-knowledge in adulthood is influenced by individual differences in intelligence-as-process (i.e., fluid intelligence) and in personality traits that determine when, where, and how people invest their intelligence over time. Here, the relationship between two investment traits (i.e., Openness to Experience and Need for Cognition), intelligence-as-process and intelligence-as-knowledge, as assessed by a battery of crystallized intelligence tests and a new knowledge measure, was examined. The results showed that (1) both investment traits were positively associated with intelligence-as-knowledge; (2) this effect was stronger for Openness to Experience than for Need for Cognition; and (3) associations between investment and intelligence-as-knowledge reduced when adjusting for intelligence-as-process but remained mostly significant.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document