Forced choices reveal a trade-off between cognitive effort and physical pain.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Vogel TA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7714391 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Forced choices reveal a trade-off between cognitive effort and physical pain.
Vogel Todd A TA Savelson Zachary M ZM Otto A Ross AR Roy Mathieu M
eLife 20201117
Cognitive effort is described as aversive, and people will generally avoid it when possible. This aversion to effort is believed to arise from a cost-benefit analysis of the actions available. The comparison of cognitive effort against other primary aversive experiences, however, remains relatively unexplored. Here, we offered participants choices between performing a cognitively demanding task or experiencing thermal pain. We found that cognitive effort can be traded off for physical pain and t ...[more]
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