Evidence against the primacy of energy conservation: Exerted force in possible and impossible handgrip tasks.

Abstract

Motivational intensity theory predicts that energy investment in goal pursuit is governed by the motivation to conserve resources and that it should consequently be a function of task demand: Trying to avoid wasting resources, individuals should invest only the energy that is required for task success and should disengage if success is impossible. Three experiments tested this hypothesis assessing the force exerted in an isometric handgrip task as indicator of energy investment. The results provided mixed evidence for motivational intensity theory.Supporting the theory, exerted force increased as a function of task demand if task success was possible and was low if success was impossible. However, exerted force exceeded required force in all possible conditions and participants did not disengage if task success was impossible. A meta-analysis of published studies involving disengagement conditions revealed that preceding research on motivational intensity theory also failed to provide support for the disengagement hypothesis. Our findings demonstrate the importance of task demand for energy investment but also challenge the assumption that energy investment is primarily driven by energy conservation concerns.

Different faces of (un)controllability: Control restoration modulates the efficiency of task switching

“…Cognitive effort investment is thus minimised when it is impossible to solve the ongoing task or problem despite trying hard to do so. However, in some conditions participants invest more effort than required in a task and do not fully disengage even if task success is impossible; which is inconsistent with the basic idea of energy conservation (Stanek and Richter 2016). When task difficulty is unclear, effort devoted to solve a task might actually increase depending on the importance of success, that is, when, success importance is high and positive mood is induced (Richter 2015;Richter and Gendolla 2009).…”

Clarity of task difficulty moderates the impact of the explicit achievement motive on physical effort in hand grip tasks

“…The hand grip task followed a paradigm successfully employed in previous studies on motivational intensity theory [ 37 , 38 ]. In the hand grip task, participants were asked to imagine that the dynamometer represented a clogged Ketchup bottle that they could free by exerting a force equal to or higher than a force standard (i.e., a specific force in Newton) determined by the computer.…”

Fatigue influence on inhibitory control: Cardiovascular and performance findings elucidate the role of restraint intensity

“…Personal appraisals of restraint capacity and urge magnitude can be accurate, resulting in effort deployment that matches demand and yields success. These appraisals also can be inaccurate, resulting in deployment that exceeds or falls short of demand (Richter, 2013(Richter, , 2015Stanek & Richter, 2016, 2021. In the realm of restraint, effort overshoots ought not to impact performance relative to what would be observed if effort were properly calibrated.…”