The Effect of Perceived Effort on Reward Valuation: Taking the Reward Positivity (RewP) to Dissonance Theory

Does effort increase or decrease reward valuation? Considerations from cognitive dissonance theory

The present research tested the effect of manipulated perceived control (over obtaining the outcomes) and effort on reward valuation using the event-related potential known as the Reward Positivity (RewP). This test was conducted in an attempt to integrate two research literatures with opposite findings: Effort justification occurs when high effort leads to high reward valuation, whereas effort discounting occurs when high effort leads to low reward valuation. Based on an examination of past methods used in these literatures, we predicted that perceived control and effort would interactively influence RewP. Consistent with the effort justification literature (cognitive dissonance theory), when individuals have high perceived control, high effort should lead to more reward valuation than low effort should. Consistent with the effort discounting literature, when individuals have low perceived control, low effort should lead to more reward valuation than high effort should. Results supported these interactive and integrative predictions.

People see what they want to see: an EEG study

This study explored selective exposure and confirmation bias in the choices participants made about which political videos to watch, and whether their political positions changed after they watched videos that either agreed with or opposed their positions on two controversial issues in South Korea: North Korea policy and social welfare policy. The participants completed questionnaires before and after they watched the videos, were asked to select thumbnails of videos before they watched any, and had their brain wave activity measured through electroencephalogram (EEG) as they watched both types of videos. The participants demonstrated selective exposure as they primarily selected video thumbnails with content that matched their political orientations, and they demonstrated confirmation bias as their questionnaire responses after they watched the videos indicated that their positions had hardened. There were also statistically significant differences in alpha, beta, sensory motor rhythm, low beta, mid beta, and fast alpha activity depending on the political orientation consistency between the participants and the videos. Future studies could expand this line of research beyond college students and beyond Asia, and longitudinal work could also be conducted to determine if the obtained patterns remain constant over time.

Effort expenditure modulates feedback evaluations involving self-other agreement: evidence from brain potentials and neural oscillations

The influence of effort expenditure on the subjective value in feedback involving material reward has been the focus of previous research. However, little is known about the impact of effort expenditure on subjective value evaluations when feedback involves reward that is produced in the context of social interaction (e.g. self-other agreement). Moreover, how effort expenditure influences confidence (second-order subjective value) in feedback evaluations remains unclear. Using electroencephalography, this study aimed to address these questions. Event-related potentials showed that, after exerting high effort, participants exhibited increased reward positivity difference in response to self-other (dis)agreement feedback. After exerting low effort, participants reported high confidence, and the self-other disagreement feedback evoked a larger P3a. Time-frequency analysis showed that the high-effort task evoked increased frontal midline theta power. In the low (vs. high)-effort task, the frontal midline delta power for self-other disagreement feedback was enhanced. These findings suggest that, at the early feedback evaluation stage, after exerting high effort, individuals exhibit an increased sensitivity of subjective value evaluation in response to self-other agreement feedback. At the later feedback evaluation stage, after completing the low-effort task, the self-other disagreement feedback violates the individuals'high confidence and leads to a metacognitive mismatch.

Dissociable neural after-effects of cognitive and physical effort expenditure during reward evaluation

The reward after-effect of effort expenditure refers to the phenomenon that previous effort investment changes the subjective value of rewards when obtained. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the after-effects of effort exertion are still not fully understood. We investigated the modulation of reward after-effects by effort type (cognitive vs. physical) through the lens of neural dynamics. Thirty-two participants performed a physically or cognitively demanding task during an effort phase and then played a simple gambling game during a subsequent reward phase to earn monetary rewards while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. We found that previous effort expenditure decreased electrocortical activity during feedback evaluation. Importantly, this effort effect occurred in a domain-general manner during the early stage (as indexed by the reward positivity) but in a domain-specific manner during the later and more elaborative stage (as indexed by the P3 and delta oscillation) of reward evaluation. Additionally, effort expenditure enhanced P3 sensitivity to feedback valence regardless of effort type. Our findings suggest that cognitive and physical effort, although bearing some surface resemblance to each other, may have dissociable neural influences on the reward after-effects.

Effort and effort discounting as predictors of seeking psychotherapy among individuals with depression

OBJECTIVES

Many individuals who experience depression do not seek psychotherapy, and past research has had limited success in predicting help-seeking in this population. Accounting for behavioral characteristics of depression that affect help-seeking decisions, such as effort discounting (devaluation of rewards as a function of effort), may address this gap.

METHODS

Individuals with moderate-severe depression symptoms who were not in psychotherapy (N = 253) reported their depression symptom severity and the amount of effort they anticipated seeking psychotherapy would require; they also completed a behavioral measure of effort discounting. At a 3-month follow-up, they reported whether they initiated psychotherapy during the follow-up period.

RESULTS

Depression symptom severity was associated with perceptions that seeking psychotherapy would be more effortful. In turn, perceptions that seeking psychotherapy would be more effortful prospectively predicted a lower likelihood of initiating psychotherapy. Effort discounting was unrelated to psychotherapy use.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that differences in the anticipated effort required to seek psychotherapy can increase depressed individuals' risk of going untreated. Future research may test whether reducing the effort of seeking psychotherapy increases psychotherapy use among those with depression. For instance, streamlining insurance enrollment procedures, implementing patient decision aids, or offering telehealth treatment options may be beneficial.

Empathising with masked targets: limited side effects of face masks on empathy for dynamic, context-rich stimuli

Multiple studies revealed detrimental effects of face masks on communication, including reduced empathic accuracy and enhanced listening effort. Yet, extant research relied on artificial, decontextualised stimuli, which prevented assessing empathy under more ecologically valid conditions. In this preregistered online experiment (N = 272), we used film clips featuring targets reporting autobiographical events to address motivational mechanisms underlying face mask effects on cognitive (empathic accuracy) and emotional facets (emotional congruence, sympathy) of empathy. Surprisingly, targets whose faces were covered by a mask (or a black bar) elicited the same level of empathy motives (affiliation, cognitive effort), and accordingly, the same level of cognitive and emotional empathy compared to targets with uncovered faces. We only found a negative direct effect of face coverings on sympathy. Additional analyses revealed that older (compared to young) adults showed higher empathy, but age did not moderate face mask effects. Our findings speak against strong negative face mask effects on empathy when using dynamic, context-rich stimuli, yet support motivational mechanisms of empathy.

Electrophysiological measures of conflict and reward processing are associated with decisions to engage in physical effort

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a key brain region involved in cognitive control and decision making, is suggested to mediate effort- and value-based decision making, but the specific role of ACC in this process remains debated. Here we used frontal midline theta (FMT) and the reward positivity (RewP) to examine ACC function in a value-based decision making task requiring physical effort. We investigated whether (1) FMT power is sensitive to the difficulty of the decision or to selecting effortful actions, and (2) RewP is sensitive to the subjective value of reward outcomes as a function of effort investment. On each trial, participants chose to execute a low-effort or a high-effort behavior (that required squeezing a hand-dynamometer) to obtain smaller or larger rewards, respectively, while their brainwaves were recorded. We replicated prior findings that tonic FMT increased over the course of the hour-long task, which suggests increased application of control in the face of growing fatigue. RewP amplitude also increased following execution of high-effort compared to low-effort behavior, consistent with increased valuation of reward outcomes by ACC. Although neither phasic nor tonic FMT were associated with decision difficulty or effort selection per se, an exploratory analysis revealed that the interaction of phasic FMT and expected value of choice predicted effort choice. This interaction suggests that phasic FMT increases specifically under situations of decision difficulty when participants ultimately select a high-effort choice. These results point to a unique role for ACC in motivating and persisting at effortful behavior when decision conflict is high.

Individual differences in dissonance arousal/reduction relate to physical exercise: Testing the action-based model

INTRODUCTION

The present research was designed to test predictions derived from the action-based model of cognitive dissonance theory. These predictions were that dissonance arousal would be negatively related to effective behavior, and that dissonance reduction would be positively related to effective behavior.

METHOD

Dissonance arousal and reduction were measured using an individual differences questionnaire. Effective behavior was measured as amount of physical exercise obtained from an exercise app that measures exercise using GPS (cycling kilometers over one year; Study 1) and from self-reports (number of days during the previous week; Study 2-3).

RESULTS

Results suggested that individual differences in dissonance arousal relate to less exercise and that individual differences in dissonance reduction relate to more exercise. Statistically controlling for trait approach and avoidance motivation as well as satisfaction with life revealed that dissonance processes predicted exercise behavior over these traits. This pattern of results was generally consistent across the three studies. Moreover, results from Studies 2-3 suggested possible statistical mediators from the exercise commitment literature of the relationship between trait dissonance arousal/reduction and exercise behavior.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

These results highlight the importance of considering dissonance processes as adaptive ones, and they suggest possible ways of increasing exercise behavior.

Depression reduces neural correlates of reward salience with increasing effort over the course of the progressive ratio task

BACKGROUND

Depressive disorders have been associated with altered effort-cost decision making (ECDM) in behavioral investigations, such as a decreased willingness to expend effort for reward attainment. However, little is known about neural mechanisms implicated in altered ECDM.

METHODS

The study investigates neural correlates of reward attainment during a progressive ratio task in participants with a current depressive disorder (n = 65) and never-depressed healthy individuals (n = 44). On each trial, participants completed an increasing number of button presses to attain a fixed monetary reward, indicated by an auditory reward signal. Participants could decide to quit the task anytime (breakpoint). EEG was recorded during the task and P300 amplitudes were examined in response to the auditory signal of reward attainment.

RESULTS

There was no difference in breakpoint, as both groups completed comparable numbers of button presses. In contrast, results from mixed-effects models of trial-level ERP responses indicated depression-related effects on P300 amplitudes over the course of the task. Generally, the reward-locked P300 increased with ascending effort expenditure; however, compared to healthy participants, individuals with current depression were characterized by an attenuated trajectory of the reward-locked P300, pointing towards decreased reactivity to reward attainment with increasing effort.

LIMITATIONS

Sample size and reward magnitude were possibly not large enough to detect differences in breakpoint.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the current study demonstrate that the investigation of reward-related P300 trajectory may represent an informative novel addition to the progressive ratio task, which could help shed light on depression-related alterations in motivation and ECDM.

Cognitive Effort Exertion Enhances Electrophysiological Responses to Rewarding Outcomes

Recent work has highlighted neural mechanisms underlying cognitive effort-related discounting of anticipated rewards. However, findings on whether effort exertion alters the subjective value of obtained rewards are inconsistent. Here, we provide a more nuanced account of how cognitive effort affects subsequent reward processing in a novel task designed to assess effort-induced modulations of the Reward Positivity, an event-related potential indexing reward-related neural activity. We found that neural responses to both gains and losses were significantly elevated in trials requiring more versus less cognitive effort. Moreover, time-frequency analysis revealed that these effects were mirrored in gain-related delta, but not in loss-related theta band activity, suggesting that people ascribed more value to high-effort outcomes. In addition, we also explored whether individual differences in behavioral effort discounting rates and reward sensitivity in the absence of effort may affect the relationship between effort exertion and subsequent reward processing. Together, our findings provide evidence that cognitive effort exertion can increase the subjective value of subsequent outcomes and that this effect may primarily rely on modulations of delta band activity.

The effort-doors task: Examining the temporal dynamics of effort-based reward processing using ERPs

Aberrant reward processing is a cardinal feature of various forms of psychopathology. However, recent research indicates that aberrant reward processing may manifest at temporally distinct substages and involve interdependent subcomponents of reward processing. To improve our understanding of both the temporal dynamics and distinct subcomponents of reward processing, we added an effort manipulation to the "doors" reward-task paradigm, to derive behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures of effort-based reward processing. Behavioral measures consisting of reaction time, response rate, and response rate change were used to index effort expenditure, and ERP measures were used to index attention allocated toward effort-completion cues, anticipation of reward, valuation of reward, and attention toward monetary feedback. Reduced response rate and slowing of response were evident during the high effort versus the low effort condition. ERP findings indicated increased attention to signals of high- compared to low-effort completion cues-as well as reduced anticipation of rewards, and reduced attention toward feedback information following high effort expenditure. Participants showing the most response-rate slowing evidenced the greatest reward devaluation following high versus low effort. Findings demonstrate that the addition of an effort expenditure manipulation to the doors reward paradigm produced reliable ERP and behavioral measures of effort-based reward processing, providing opportunities for future researchers to utilize the effort-doors task to parse the temporal dynamics of both anticipatory and consummatory reward processing components.

The effect of perceived effort and perceived control on reward valuation: Using the reward positivity to test a dissonance theory prediction

Past psychological theory and research suggest two opposing relationships between effort and reward valuation. Cognitive dissonance theory and research suggest that increased effort is associated with increased reward valuation, whereas theory and research on effort discounting suggest that increased effort is associated with decreased reward valuation. The present study was designed to test these two opposing perspectives, by examining a potential moderator of the relationship between effort and reward valuation - the belief that the effort was necessary to obtain the reward. Results (n = 44) suggested that increased perceptions of effort following a task were associated with larger neural responses to rewards (as assessed by the event-related potential referred to as the reward positivity) when individuals believed that their effort led to the reward but not when they believed that their effort did not lead to the reward. Discussion considers the implications of these results.