The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance
Many theories on cognitive effort start from the assumption that cognitive effort can be expended at will, and flexibly up- or down-regulated depending on expected task demand and rewards. However, while effort regulation has been investigated across a wide range of incentive conditions, few investi...
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| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/415 |
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| author | Nanne Kukkonen Senne Braem Jens Allaert Joshua O. Eayrs Nicoleta Prutean S. Tabitha Steendam C. Nico Boehler Jan R. Wiersema Wim Notebaert Ruth M. Krebs |
| author_facet | Nanne Kukkonen Senne Braem Jens Allaert Joshua O. Eayrs Nicoleta Prutean S. Tabitha Steendam C. Nico Boehler Jan R. Wiersema Wim Notebaert Ruth M. Krebs |
| author_sort | Nanne Kukkonen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Many theories on cognitive effort start from the assumption that cognitive effort can be expended at will, and flexibly up- or down-regulated depending on expected task demand and rewards. However, while effort regulation has been investigated across a wide range of incentive conditions, few investigated the cost of effort regulation itself. Across four experiments, we studied the effects of reward expectancy and task difficulty on effort expenditure in a perceptual decision-making task (random-dot-motion) and a cognitive control task (colour-naming Stroop), and within each task comparted cues between short (cueing the next trial) and long (cueing the next six trials) prediction horizons. We found that participants used the cue information only when it was valid for multiple trials in a row. In the random-dot-motion task, a high reward expectancy resulted in better accuracy, especially in easy trials, but only with long prediction horizon. Similarly, in the Stroop task, the reward facilitation of reaction time was only observed after reward cues with a long prediction horizon. Together, our results indicate that people experience a cost to effort regulation, and that lower adjustment frequency can compensate for this cost. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3e15bd3146294a23b5843821c3936dd6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2514-4820 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-3e15bd3146294a23b5843821c3936dd62025-02-11T05:36:32ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Cognition2514-48202025-01-01819910.5334/joc.415414The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on PerformanceNanne Kukkonen0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6153-1118Senne Braem1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2619-8225Jens Allaert2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2745-1923Joshua O. Eayrs3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8598-6064Nicoleta Prutean4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4446-9586S. Tabitha Steendam5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7247-1798C. Nico Boehler6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5963-2780Jan R. Wiersema7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5875-2051Wim Notebaert8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7281-7816Ruth M. Krebs9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0676-7611Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Head and Skin, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityMany theories on cognitive effort start from the assumption that cognitive effort can be expended at will, and flexibly up- or down-regulated depending on expected task demand and rewards. However, while effort regulation has been investigated across a wide range of incentive conditions, few investigated the cost of effort regulation itself. Across four experiments, we studied the effects of reward expectancy and task difficulty on effort expenditure in a perceptual decision-making task (random-dot-motion) and a cognitive control task (colour-naming Stroop), and within each task comparted cues between short (cueing the next trial) and long (cueing the next six trials) prediction horizons. We found that participants used the cue information only when it was valid for multiple trials in a row. In the random-dot-motion task, a high reward expectancy resulted in better accuracy, especially in easy trials, but only with long prediction horizon. Similarly, in the Stroop task, the reward facilitation of reaction time was only observed after reward cues with a long prediction horizon. Together, our results indicate that people experience a cost to effort regulation, and that lower adjustment frequency can compensate for this cost.https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/415cognitive efforteffort regulationdecision makingcognitive controlrandom-dot-motionstroop |
| spellingShingle | Nanne Kukkonen Senne Braem Jens Allaert Joshua O. Eayrs Nicoleta Prutean S. Tabitha Steendam C. Nico Boehler Jan R. Wiersema Wim Notebaert Ruth M. Krebs The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance Journal of Cognition cognitive effort effort regulation decision making cognitive control random-dot-motion stroop |
| title | The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance |
| title_full | The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance |
| title_fullStr | The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance |
| title_short | The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance |
| title_sort | cost of regulating effort reward and difficulty cues with longer prediction horizons have a stronger impact on performance |
| topic | cognitive effort effort regulation decision making cognitive control random-dot-motion stroop |
| url | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/415 |
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