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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2013

Marie Hennecke  and
Alexandra M. Freund
Marie Hennecke
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904. [email protected]://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/fachrichtungen/motivation/team2-1/mariehennecke_en.html
Alexandra M. Freund
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland. [email protected]://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/fachrichtungen/angpsy/angpsy-team/freund_en.html
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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.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2013 , pp. 690 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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