Treffer: The cognitive and motor determinants of the perception of effort.
Title:
The cognitive and motor determinants of the perception of effort.
Authors:
Herzberg E; Department of Physical Therapy, The Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions, Gray Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel.; Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel., Halperin I; Department of Health Promotion, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.; Sylvan Adams Sports Institute, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel., Wolpe N; Department of Physical Therapy, The Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions, Gray Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel. nwolpe@tau.ac.il.; Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel. nwolpe@tau.ac.il.
Source:
Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience [Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci] 2025 Oct 01. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Oct 01.
Publication Model:
Ahead of Print
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101083946 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1531-135X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 15307026 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: 2011- : New York : Springer
Original Publication: Austin, TX : Psychonomic Society, c2001-
Original Publication: Austin, TX : Psychonomic Society, c2001-
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Grant Information:
1603/22 Israel Science Foundation
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: Depressive symptoms; Effort; Motivation; Perception of effort
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20251001 Latest Revision: 20251001
Update Code:
20251002
DOI:
10.3758/s13415-025-01346-5
PMID:
41034685
Database:
MEDLINE
Weitere Informationen
Effort refers to the physical work or force exerted to achieve an outcome, which is dissociable from the subjective experience that accompanies this exertion, termed perceived effort. Previous decision-making studies have examined effort valuation, focussing on individual differences in effort and reward sensitivity when choosing an action. These studies measure anticipatory aspects effort and reward, rather than their experiential aspects. Yet, how individuals perceive effort has significant implications for mental health. Here, we address this gap using an effort psychophysics task in young, healthy adults (n = 76). Participants used a hand dynamometer to raise a visual "mercury" column to a target zone, aiming to match the required force for at least 3 s within a 7-s window to succeed. After each trial, participants rated their perceived effort on a 0-100 visual analogue scale. We estimated the contribution of force and task failure to perceived effort ratings using a robust regression model. Higher depressive symptoms were associated with a reduced influence of exerted force and an increased influence of task outcome (failure) on perceived effort. We identified additional key cognitive and motor contributors to the experience of effort, such as accumulated fatigue, expectations and force stability. The experience of effort thus arises from multiple interacting cognitive and motor contributors. Individual differences in the contribution of these factors to the experience of effort, such as force and failure are associated with depressive symptoms, underscoring the importance of considering experiential aspects of effort in mental health research.
(© 2025. The Author(s).)
Declarations. Conflicts of interest/competing interests: The authors declare none. Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Tel Aviv University Research Ethics Committee (reference 0005906). Consent to participate: All participants signed written informed consent before starting the experiment. Consent for publication: All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be submitted for publication. Open Practices Statement: Data and the code used to analyse the data and create the figures are available at: https://github.com/nwolpe/effort_perception .