Competing goals draw attention to effort, which then enters cost-benefit computations as input

Behav Brain Sci. 2013 Dec;36(6):690-1; discussion 707-26. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X13001027.

Abstract

Different to Kurzban et al., we conceptualize the experience of mental effort as the subjective costs of goal pursuit (i.e., the amount of invested resources relative to the amount of available resources). Rather than being an output of computations that compare costs and benefits of the target and competing goals, effort enters these computations as an input.

Publication types

  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Mental Fatigue / psychology*
  • Models, Psychological*