Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T21:19:29.918Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Can tasks be inherently boring?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2013

Evan Charney*
Affiliation:
Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0239. [email protected]://www.duke.edu/~echar/

Abstract

Kurzban et al. argue that the experiences of “effort,” “boredom,” and “fatigue” are indications that the costs of a task outweigh its benefits. Reducing the costs of tasks to “opportunity costs” has the effect of rendering tasks costless and of denying that they can be inherently boring or tedious, something that “vigilance tasks” were intentionally designed to be.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Warm, J. S. & Dember, W. N. (1998) Tests of vigilance taxonomy. In: Viewing psychology as a whole: The integrative science of William N. Dember, ed. Hoffman, R. R., Sherrick, M. F. & Warm, J. S., pp. 87112. American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar