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The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
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Context effects in cognitive effort evaluation.
Sophie Desjardins1, Rui Tang1, Seffie Yip1
1Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|August 5, 2024
Summary
People avoid cognitive effort, but its evaluation depends on context. This study shows that effort is perceived relative to the learning environment, influencing choices and ratings.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Individuals tend to avoid cognitively demanding tasks due to the aversive experience of effort.
- Research indicates that the valuation of goods, actions, and experiences is often context-dependent, not absolute.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether the evaluation of cognitive effort is also influenced by contextual factors.
- To determine if subjective effort is assimilated to the learning context.
Main Methods:
- Participants learned stimulus-demand associations in distinct low-demand and high-demand contexts.
- Demand preferences and subjective effort evaluations were assessed using forced-choice tasks and on-line/off-line ratings.
- Assimilation effects were examined by comparing preferences and ratings for objectively identical stimuli learned in different contexts.
Main Results:
- Participants preferred stimuli learned in low-demand contexts over those learned in high-demand contexts, even when objective demand was identical.
- On-line effort ratings showed assimilation to the context, while off-line ratings did not consistently.
- Stronger assimilation in off-line demand ratings correlated with assimilation in demand preferences.
Conclusions:
- The evaluation of cognitive effort is context-dependent, assimilating to the surrounding environment.
- Contextual framing significantly influences how effortful an action is perceived and preferred.
- Understanding context-dependent effort evaluation has implications for decision-making and task engagement.
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