scholarly journals Do humans prefer cognitive effort over doing nothing?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Wu ◽  
Amanda M Ferguson ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Selection Task ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Simple Addition ◽  
Demand Selection

Humans and other animals find mental (and physical) effort aversive and have the fundamental drive to avoid it. However, exerting no effort, doing nothing, is also aversive: it leads to boredom. Here, we ask whether people choose to exert effort when the alternative is to do nothing at all. Across nine studies, participants completed variants of the demand selection task, in which they repeatedly selected between a cognitively effortful task (e.g., simple addition, Stroop task) and a task that required no effort (e.g., doing nothing, watching the computer complete the Stroop). We then tabulated people’s choices. Across all studies and a mini meta-analysis, we found no evidence of effort avoidance and sometimes even a preference for effort when the alternative was doing nothing. Our findings reveal the limits of effort avoidance, suggesting that people do not seek to completely minimize effort expenditure.

scholarly journals More Effort, Less Fatigue: The Role of Interest in Increasing Effort and Reducing Mental Fatigue

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Milyavskaya ◽  
Brian M. Galla ◽  
Michael Inzlicht ◽  
Angela L. Duckworth
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Selection Task ◽  
School Students ◽  
Math Problem ◽  
Demand Selection ◽  
Math Problems

People generally prefer easier over more difficult mental tasks. Using two different adaptations of a demand selection task, we show that interest can influence this effect, such that participants choose options with a higher cognitive workload. Interest was also associated with lower feelings of fatigue. In two studies, participants (N = 63 and N = 158) repeatedly made a choice between completing a difficult or easy math problem. Results show that liking math predicts choosing more difficult (vs. easy) math problems (even after controlling for perceived math skill). Two additional studies used the Academic Diligence Task (Galla et al., 2014), where high school students (N = 447 and N = 884) could toggle between a math task and playing a video game/watching videos. In these studies, we again find that math interest relates to greater proportion of time spent on the math problems. Three of these four studies also examined perceived fatigue, finding that interest relates to lower fatigue. An internal meta-analysis of the four studies finds a small but robust effect of interest on both the willingness to exert greater effort and the experience of less fatigue (despite engaging in more effort).

scholarly journals Information about task progress modulates cognitive demand avoidance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Devine ◽  
A. Ross Otto
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Demand ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Selection Task ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Activity Avoidance ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Demand Selection ◽  
Cognitively Demanding Tasks ◽  
Temporal Progress

People tend to avoid engaging in cognitively demanding tasks unless it is ‘worth our while’—that is, if the benefits outweigh the costs of effortful action. Yet, we seemingly partake in a variety of effortful mental activities (e.g. playing chess, completing Sudoku puzzles) because they impart a sense of progress. Here, we examine the possibility that information about progress—specifically, the number of trials completed of a demanding cognitive control task, relative to the total number of trials to be completed—reduces individuals’ aversion to cognitively effort activity, across four experiments. In Experiment 1, we provide an initial demonstration that presenting progress information reduces individuals’ avoidance of cognitively demanding activity avoidance using a variant of the well-characterized Demand Selection Task (DST). The subsequent experiments buttress this finding using a more sophisticated within-subjects versions of the DST, independently manipulating progress information and demand level to further demonstrate that, 1) people prefer receiving information about temporal progress in a task, and 2) all else being equal, individuals will choose to exert greater levels of cognitive effort when it confers information about their progress in a task. Together, these results suggest that progress information can motivate cognitive effort expenditure and, in some cases, override individuals’ default bias towards demand avoidance.

The Ego Could Be Depleted, Providing Initial Exertion Is Depleting

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junhua Dang ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Xiaoping Liu ◽  
Lihua Mao
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Ego Depletion ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Depletion Effect

Abstract. The ego depletion effect has been examined by over 300 independent studies during the past two decades. Despite its pervasive influence, recently this effect has been severely challenged and asserted to be a fake. Based on an up-to-date meta-analysis that examined the effectiveness of each frequently used depleting task, we preregistered the current experiment with the aim to examine whether there would be an ego depletion effect when the Stroop task is used as the depleting task. The results demonstrated a significant ego depletion effect. The current research highlights the importance of the depleting task’s effectiveness. That is to say, the “ego” could be “depleted,” but only when initial exertion is “depleting.”

Meta-Analysis of Neuropsychological Studies in Panic Disorder Patients: Evidence of Impaired Performance during the Emotional Stroop Task

2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lillian Harber ◽  
Reza Hamidian ◽  
Ali Bani-Fatemi ◽  
Kevin Z. Wang ◽  
Oluwagbenga Dada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Panic Disorder ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Emotional Stroop ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Emotional Stroop Task

scholarly journals The influence of emotional interference on cognitive control: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies using the emotional Stroop task

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sensen Song ◽  
Anna Zilverstand ◽  
Hongwen Song ◽  
Federico d’Oleire Uquillas ◽  
Yongming Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Emotional Stroop ◽  
Emotional Stroop Task ◽  
Emotional Interference

Weight as an Embodiment of Importance

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1169-1174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils B. Jostmann ◽  
Daniël Lakens ◽  
Thomas W. Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Monetary Value ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
Bodily Experiences ◽  
Important Study

Four studies show that the abstract concept of importance is grounded in bodily experiences of weight. Participants provided judgments of importance while they held either a heavy or a light clipboard. Holding a heavy clipboard increased judgments of monetary value (Study 1) and made participants consider fair decision-making procedures to be more important (Study 2). It also caused more elaborate thinking, as indicated by higher consistency between related judgments (Study 3) and by greater polarization of agreement ratings for strong versus weak arguments (Study 4). In line with an embodied perspective on cognition, these findings suggest that, much as weight makes people invest more physical effort in dealing with concrete objects, it also makes people invest more cognitive effort in dealing with abstract issues.

scholarly journals Apparent preferences for cognitive effort fade when multiple forms of effort and delay are interleaved in a foraging environment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Toro-Serey ◽  
Gary Kane ◽  
Joseph McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Prey Selection ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Acceptance Rate ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Delay Duration ◽  
Cost Of Time ◽  
Acceptance Rates

Cognitive and physical effort are typically regarded as costly, but demands for effort also seemingly boost the value of prospects under certain conditions. One contextual factor that might influence the perceived value of effort is the mix of different demand types a decision maker encounters in a given environment. Here, we embedded both cognitive and physical effort in a "prey selection" foraging task, which required decision makers not only to evaluate the magnitude and delay of a focal prospective reward but also to estimate the general opportunity cost of time. In two experiments, participants encountered prospective rewards that required equivalent intervals of cognitive effort, physical effort, or unfilled delay. Monetary offers varied per trial, and the two experiments differed in whether the type of effort or delay cost was the same on every trial (between-participant manipulation, n=21 per condition), or varied across trials (within-participant manipulation, n=48). When each participant faced only one type of cost, cognitive effort persistently produced the highest acceptance rate compared to trials with an equivalent period of either physical effort or unfilled delay. We theorized that if cognitive effort were intrinsically rewarding, we would observe the same pattern of preferences when participants foraged for varying cost types in addition to rewards. Contrary to this prediction, in the within-participant experiment, an initially higher acceptance rate for cognitive effort trials disappeared over time amid an overall decline in acceptance rates as participants gained experience with all three conditions. Our results indicate that cognitive demands may reduce the discounting effect of delays, but not because decision makers assign intrinsic value to cognitive effort. Rather, the results suggest that a cognitive effort requirement might influence contextual factors such as subjective delay duration estimates, which can be recalibrated if multiple forms of demand are interleaved.

scholarly journals Cognitive Effort-Avoidance in Patients with Schizophrenia Can Reflect Amotivation: An event-related potential Study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
YX Lin ◽  
LiJun Zhang ◽  
Liang Ying ◽  
qiang zhou
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Mean Amplitude ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Knowledge Test ◽  
Opposite Trend ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Demand Selection

Abstract Background: Amotivation is regarded as a core negative symptom in patients with schizophrenia. There are currently no objective methods for assessing and measuring amotivation in the scientific literature, only a trend towards assessing motivation using effort-orientated, decision-making tasks. However, it remains inconclusive as to whether cognitive effort-avoidance in patients with schizophrenia can reflect their amotivation. Therefore, this study aimed to find out whether cognitive effort-avoidance in patients with schizophrenia can reflect their amotivation. Methods: In total, 28 patients with schizophrenia and 27 healthy controls were selected as participants. The demand selection task (DST) was adapted according to the feedback-based Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) delayed response paradigm, which was combined with the mean amplitude of contingent negative variation (CNV), considered as the criterion of motivation. Results: Our results showed that: (1) patients with schizophrenia showed a lower CNV amplitude for the target stimuli compared to the probe stimuli, whereas the control group showed the opposite trend (P<0.05); (2) among patients with schizophrenia, the high cognitive effort-avoidance group showed a smaller CNV amplitude for the target stimuli compared to the probe stimuli, whereas the low cognitive effort avoidance group showed a higher CNV amplitude for the target stimuli compared to the probe stimuli; the opposite trend was observed in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: These findings support the claim that CNV amplitude can be used as a criterion for detecting amotivation in patients with schizophrenia. Within the context of the DST, the high and low cognitive effort-avoidance of patients with schizophrenia can reflect their state of amotivation; patients with high cognitive effort-avoidance showed severe amotivation.

scholarly journals Gain-Loss Asymmetry in Delay and Effort Discounting of Different Amounts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szymon Bartłomiej Mizak ◽  
Paweł Ostaszewski ◽  
Przemysław Marcowski ◽  
Wojciech Białaszek
Keyword(s):  
Delay Discounting ◽  
Loss Aversion ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
P Loss ◽  
Effort Discounting ◽  
Gain Loss ◽  
Gains And Losses ◽  
Intertemporal Choices

Loss aversion entails the attribution of greater weight to losses than to equivalent gains. In terms of discounting, it is reflected in a higher rate for gains than for losses. Research on delay discounting indicates that such gain-loss asymmetry may depend on the amount of the outcome. In the current study, we address the question of how gains and losses are discounted in delay or effort conditions (physical or cognitive) across four outcome amounts. Our results replicate previous findings for intertemporal choices by showing that losses are discounted more slowly than gains, but only for smaller amounts, while there is no evidence of asymmetry in the evaluation for larger amounts. For physical effort discounting, we found an inverse asymmetry for the smallest amount tested (gains are discounted less steeply than losses), while such an effect is absent for larger amounts. Our results provide no support for the asymmetric evaluation of gains and losses for cognitive effort. Overall, our findings indicate that loss aversion may not be as pervasive as one might expect, at least when decisions are effort-based.

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