The role of objective and subjective effort costs in voluntary task choice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21532948 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gesine Dreisbach (0000-0002-9869-4930, University of Regensburg, corresponding author), V Jurczyk (0000-0003-4743-8969, University of Bremen) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1366-1381 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0340-0727 • E-ISSN: 1430-2772 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s00426-021-01587-2 |
| PMID | 34455454 |
| OpenAlex | W3198802477 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 52 |
Human beings tend to avoid effort, if a less effortful option is equally rewarding. However, and in sharp contrast to this claim, we repeatedly found that (a subset of) participants deliberately choose the more difficult of two tasks in a voluntary task switching (VTS) paradigm even though avoidance of the difficult task was allowed (Jurczyk et al., Motivation Science 5:295–313, 2019). In this study, we investigate to what extent the deliberate switch to the difficult task is determined by the actual objective or the subjective effort costs for the difficult task. In two experiments, participants ( N = 100, each) first went through several blocks of voluntary task choices between an easy and a difficult task. After that, they worked through an effort discounting paradigm, EDT, (Westbrook et al., PLoS One 8(7):e68210, 2013) that required participants to make a series of iterative choices between re-doing a difficult task block for a fixed amount or an easy task block for a variable (lower) amount of money until the individual indifference point was reached. In Experiment 1, the EDT comprised the same tasks from the VTS, in Experiment 2, EDT used another set of easy vs. difficult tasks. Results showed that the voluntary switch to the difficult task was mostly predicted by the objective performance costs and only marginally be the subjective effort cost. The switch to the difficult task may thus be less irrational than originally thought and at its avoidance at least partially driven by economic considerations
Cognitive psychology · Economics · Task switching · Turnover · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Computer Science · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology
The self-organized task switching paradigm
Introspection without execution
The influence of reward and loss outcomes after free- and forced-tasks on voluntary task choice
Task performance errors and rewards affect voluntary task choices
The temporal dynamics of task processing and choice in a novel multitasking paradigm
Need for cognition moderates negative evaluation of task switching
Introspection about forced and free choice
The Efficient Assessment of Need for Cognition
What Is the Subjective Cost of Cognitive Effort? Load, Trait, and Aging Effects Revealed by Economic Preference
The Ikea effect
If It's Hard to Read, It's Hard to Do
Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Affective Judgments
The Effort Paradox
Task switching
Cognitive effort
Learned industriousness.
Decision making and the avoidance of cognitive demand.
An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance
The Physiology of Willpower
Self-Control as Value-Based Choice
The Intensity of Motivation
On data-limited and resource-limited processes
The Expected Value of Control
Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1
Control and interference in task switching—A review
Task switching
| Citations per year | 1.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |