Willing to Think Hard? The Subjective Value of Cognitive Effort in Children
Open accessAbstract
Cognitive effort is costly and this cost likely influences the activities in which children engage. Yet, little is known about how school-age children perceive cognitive effort. The subjective value of cognitive effort, that is, how valuable or costly effort is perceived, was investigated in seventy-three 7- to 12-year-olds using an effort discounting paradigm. In two studies, it varied with task difficulty but not age, was predicted by actual effort engagement but not actual success and related to trait interest in effortful activities and proactive control engagement. Children are sensitive to cognitive effort and use it to guide behaviors, suggesting that poor performance may often reflect reluctance to engage cognitive effort rather than low ability.
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Research on cognitive effort suggests children often avoid tasks they perceive as cognitively demanding, even when those tasks may lead to more meaningful or rewarding outcomes long term.
“This behavior may be partially explained by research on cognitive effort: children often avoid tasks they perceive as cognitively demanding, even when those tasks may lead to more meaningful or rewarding outcomes in the long term [13].”
From Child-AI Co-Creation: A Review of the Current Research Landscape and a Proposal for Six Design Considerations (2025) · cites this paper as [13]
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(2022) · doi:10.1162/jocn
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- Authors
- Chevalier, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Chevalier, Nicolas
- ORCID
- Chevalier, Nicolas
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2018-07-01
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1283-1295
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8624
- OpenAlex
- W2587738328
- Cited by
- 70
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4
- FWCI
- 5.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (70033)
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/N018877/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Keywords
- cognitive effort, subjective value, effort discounting, children, task difficulty, proactive control, effort aversion, elementary school students
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Child, Cognition, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Motivation, Perception, Thinking, Delay Discounting
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