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Choices favoring cognitive effort in a foraging environment decrease when multiple forms of effort and delay are

Claudio Toro-Serey1,2, Gary A Kane3,4, Joseph T McGuire3,4

  • 1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. ctoroserey@mclean.harvard.edu.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cognitive effort may seem appealing, but it doesn't appear intrinsically rewarding. Interleaving different demands, like cognitive and physical effort, can recalibrate decision-making over time.

Keywords:
Behavioral CostsComputational ModelingDecision MakingDelayEffortForaging

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Area of Science:

  • Decision Science
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Effort is often viewed as costly, yet it can increase the attractiveness of choices.
  • The interplay of different demand types (cognitive, physical, delay) influences decision-making under varying conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether cognitive effort is intrinsically rewarding.
  • To examine how the mix of cognitive, physical, and delay costs affects choice behavior.
  • To understand the impact of experience with varied demands on effort valuation.

Main Methods:

  • Two foraging experiments were conducted with human participants.
  • Participants faced choices involving monetary rewards with varying costs: cognitive effort, physical effort, or unfilled delay.
  • Experimental conditions manipulated whether cost types were constant or varied across trials.

Main Results:

  • When faced with a single cost type, cognitive effort led to higher acceptance rates than physical effort or delay.
  • This preference for cognitive effort diminished when participants experienced interleaved cost types.
  • Overall acceptance rates declined with experience across all conditions.

Conclusions:

  • Cognitive effort does not appear to be intrinsically valued.
  • Cognitive demands may alter subjective time perception, reducing delay discounting.
  • Interleaving diverse demand types can recalibrate decision-making and mitigate the initial appeal of cognitive effort.