Mental fatigue, anticipated effort, and subjective valuations of exercising predict choice to exercise or not: A mixed-methods study

Harris, Sheereen; Bray, Steven R

doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.101924

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The ability to weigh expected rewards and costs is critical for optimal decision-making (Frömer & Shenhav, 2021;Lopez-Gamundi et al, 2021;Westbrook et al, 2020). For instance, many everyday activities such as exercising (Harris & Bray, 2021) and helping others (Lockwood et al, 2017) involve physical effort. Furthermore, an imbalanced effort sensitivity has been found to be closely related to a variety of disorders including schizophrenia (Gold et al, 2015), binge eating (Brassard & Balodis, 2021), Parkinson's disease (Chong, 2018), aging (Byrne & Anaraky, 2020), and depression (Berwian et al, 2020;Treadway et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex represents subjective value across effort-based and risky decision-making

Yao¹,

Song²,

Li³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Decisions that require taking prospective effort costs into account are ubiquitous in real life. The common currency theory hypothesizes that a neural network integrates different costs and rewards into a common scale to facilitate value comparison. Although there has been a surge of interest in the computational and neural basis of effort-reward integration, it is still under debate if the common currency theory could be applied to value integration in this context. Here, we comprehensively compared effort-based and risky decision-making using computational modeling, univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses, and data from two independent studies. We found that prospective outcomes were distinctively discounted by effort and risk. Moreover, although univariate fMRI analyses showed diverse results between tasks, multivariate decoding analyses indicated that the neural patterns of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) represented subjective value information across effort-based and risky decision-making. These findings suggest that the dmPFC plays a critical role in computing subjective value in a task-independent manner and thus extend the scope of the common currency theory.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex represents subjective value across effort-based and risky decision-making

Yao¹,

Song²,

Li³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Cognitive fatigue may have led to an increase in the perception of effort ( Marcora, 2010 ; Pageaux, 2014 ), a reduced willingness to exert effort ( Müller and Apps, 2019 ), or both ( Martin et al, 2018 ). Furthermore, Harris and Bray (2019 , 2021) showed that after a cognitively demanding Stroop task, the self-reported cost-benefit balance for a subsequent cycling task turned out more negatively than after watching a documentary, and this reduced the probability that participants chose to cycle. Finally, Iodice et al (2017) showed that participants’ preferences for low-effort activities were stronger when they were physically fatigued compared to a control condition, which implies that physical fatigue made people more sensitive to the perceived costs of future effort.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, some elements of previous studies prohibit definite conclusions about the role of effort-based decision making and changes in cost-benefit analyses in a fatigued state. To date, the assessment of effort-based decisions has been examined for a single choice for physical activity ( Brown and Bray, 2019 ; Harris and Bray, 2019 , 2021 ), which does not enable researchers to assess the avoidance of specific effort costs when fatigued. Moreover, cost-benefit scores were obtained using self-report scales (i.e., Harris and Bray, 2019 , 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, the assessment of effort-based decisions has been examined for a single choice for physical activity ( Brown and Bray, 2019 ; Harris and Bray, 2019 , 2021 ), which does not enable researchers to assess the avoidance of specific effort costs when fatigued. Moreover, cost-benefit scores were obtained using self-report scales (i.e., Harris and Bray, 2019 , 2021 ). Most studies thus missed the opportunity to assess cost-benefit trade-offs without being limited by participants’ ability and willingness to express their motivation accurately ( Chong et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Cognitive and Physical Effort Exertion on Physical Effort Decisions: A Pilot Experiment

Beckers

Geurts

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

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Research suggests that cognitive fatigue has a negative impact on physical activity participation. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect are yet unclear. Using an effort-based decision-making paradigm, we examined whether individuals weigh physical effort-costs more strongly when they are cognitively or physically fatigued. Twenty university students visited the lab on three occasions. On each visit, participants underwent a manipulation that was designed to either induce cognitive fatigue (i.e., 2-back task), physical fatigue (i.e., handgrip exercise), or served as a control condition (i.e., documentary watching). After the manipulations, participants performed an effort-based decision-making task in which they decided for 125 offers whether they accepted the offer to exert the required level of physical effort to obtain rewards that varied in value. The probability to accept offers declined with increasing effort requirements whereas the general probability to accept offers was not reduced by any of the experimental conditions. As expected, the decline in accepted offers with increasing effort requirements was stronger after prolonged exertion of physical effort compared to the control condition. Unexpectedly, this effect was not found after exerting cognitive effort, and exploratory analyses revealed that the impact of physical effort exertion on physical effort-based decisions was stronger than that of cognitive effort exertion. These findings suggest that people weight future physical effort-costs more strongly after exerting physical effort, whereas we could not find any evidence for this after exerting cognitive effort. We discuss multiple explanations for this discrepancy, and outline possibilities for future research.

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“… Harris and Bray (2019 , 2021) examined single situated exercise decisions. Participants had to choose between an exercise vs. a non-exercise task (e.g., seated “free time” with smartphone) after completing either a high-or low-cognitive demand task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exercise or not? An empirical illustration of the role of behavioral alternatives in exercise motivation and resulting theoretical considerations

2023

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ObjectiveIndividuals’ decisions to engage in exercise are often the result of in-the-moment choices between exercise and a competing behavioral alternative. The purpose of this study was to investigate processes that occur in-the-moment (i.e., situated processes) when individuals are faced with the choice between exercise and a behavioral alternative during a computerized task. These were analyzed against the background of interindividual differences in individuals’ automatic valuation and controlled evaluation of exercise.MethodIn a behavioral alternatives task 101 participants were asked whether they would rather choose an exercise option or a behavioral alternative in 25 trials. Participants’ gaze behavior (first gaze and fixations) was recorded using eye-tracking. An exercise-specific affect misattribution procedure (AMP) was used to assess participants’ automatic valuation of exercise before the task. After the task, self-reported feelings towards exercise (controlled evaluation) and usual weekly exercise volume were assessed. Mixed effects models with random effects for subjects and trials were used for data analysis.ResultsChoosing exercise was positively correlated with individuals’ automatic valuation (r = 0.20, p = 0.05), controlled evaluation (r = 0.58, p < 0.001), and their weekly exercise volume (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Participants showed no bias in their initial gaze or number of fixations towards the exercise or the non-exercise alternative. However, participants were 1.30 times more likely to fixate on the chosen alternative first and more frequently, but this gaze behavior was not related to individuals’ automatic valuation, controlled evaluation, or weekly exercise volume.ConclusionThe results suggest that situated processes arising from defined behavioral alternatives may be independent of individuals’ general preferences. Despite one’s best general intention to exercise more, the choice of a non-exercise alternative behavior may seem more appealing in-the-moment and eventually be chosen. New psychological theories of health behavior change should therefore better consider the role of potentially conflicting alternatives when it comes to initiating physical activity or exercise.

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Mental fatigue, anticipated effort, and subjective valuations of exercising predict choice to exercise or not: A mixed-methods study

Cited by 9 publications

References 47 publications

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex represents subjective value across effort-based and risky decision-making

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex represents subjective value across effort-based and risky decision-making

The Impact of Cognitive and Physical Effort Exertion on Physical Effort Decisions: A Pilot Experiment

Exercise or not? An empirical illustration of the role of behavioral alternatives in exercise motivation and resulting theoretical considerations

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