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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroeconomics
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Cognitive effort is often avoided, particularly in cognitive control tasks.
  • Limited research exists on cognitive demand avoidance in value-based decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate subjective demand, preferences for demand, and psychophysiological effort measures in risky decision-making.
  • Examine how cognitive demand avoidance applies to value-based choices.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments involving 199 participants evaluating risky choice pairs.
  • Utilized a novel Decision Demand Task to assess demand preferences.
  • Employed pupillometry to measure task-evoked pupillary responses (TEPRs) as an index of effort.

Main Results:

  • Less discriminable expected value differences in choice pairs were perceived as more demanding.
  • Participants consistently preferred low-demand over high-demand risky choice pairs.
  • Larger TEPRs were observed for low-demand choices, predicting subsequent demand avoidance.

Conclusions:

  • Cognitive demand avoidance is not limited to cognitive control but extends to risky value-based decision-making.
  • Subjective perceptions of demand and psychophysiological effort are linked in value-based choices.
  • Findings challenge assumptions about effort exertion in decision-making contexts.