Toward a Rational and Mechanistic Account of Mental Effort

Deep learning

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Reconceptualizing Metacognitive Experience in Dual‐Process Reasoning: The Role of Emotion in Triggering Deliberation

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Exerting control: the grammatical meaning of facial displays in signed languages

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Modeling student engagement using optimal control theory

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Pan-cortical coordination underlying mental effort

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Measuring the “invisible”: Clarifying the concept of cognitive effort in translation and interpreting processes

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Pupillometry Studies of Listening Effort: Implications for Clinical Audiology

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Signed Language and Cognitive Grammar

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The impact of real-time energy consumption feedback on residential gas and electricity usage

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Intentional hedonic consumption motivates prosocial behavior

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On Your Mark, Get Set, Self-Control, Go: A Differentiated View on the Cortical Hemodynamics of Self-Control during Sprint Start

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Value computation and modulation: A neuroeconomic theory of self-control as constrained optimization

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The sequence of manipulation matters: Abstract thinking offsets ego-depletion when induced before, but not after a depleting task

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Adaptive search space pruning in complex strategic problems

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A multimodal approach for the ecological investigation of sustained attention: A pilot study

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Toward biophysical markers of depression vulnerability

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A controller-peripheral architecture and costly energy principle for learning

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Mothers exhibit higher neural activity in gaining rewards for their children than for themselves

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How can we apply decision‐making theories to wild animal behavior? Predictions arising from dual process theory and Bayesian decision theory

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Sensitivity to the Instrumental Value of Choice Increases Across Development

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Context effects in cognitive effort evaluation

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Individual differences of conflict monitoring and feedback processing during reinforcement learning in a mock forensic context

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Does goal congruence dilate the pupil over and above goal relevance?

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Objective but not subjective fatigue increases cognitive task avoidance

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The complexity dividend: when sophisticated inference mattersPreprint

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Motivation Improves Working Memory by Two Processes: Prioritisation and Retrieval ThresholdsPreprint

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The Scientific Study of Passive Thinking: The Methodology of Mind Wandering ResearchPreprint

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Is the juice worth the squeeze? Learning the marginal value of mental effort over timePreprint

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Control Limited Perceptual Decision MakingPreprint

de Saa, J. R. C., & Renart, A. (2022) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2022.06.24.497481 · Cited by 5

EffortPreprint

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Large Language Models Amplify Human Biases in Moral Decision-MakingPreprint

Cheung, V., Maier, M., & Lieder, F. (2024) · PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/aj46b · Cited by 7

Neural basis of cognitive control signals in anterior cingulate cortex during delay discountingPreprint

Seamans, J. K., White, S., Morningstar, M. D., Emberly, E. G., Linsenbardt, D. N., Ma, B., Czachowski, C. L., & Lapish, C. C. (2024) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.99930 · Cited by 4

Relations Among Multiple Dimensions of Self-Reported Listening Effort in Response to an Auditory Psychomotor Vigilance Task

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Learning from outcomes shapes reliance on moral rules versus cost–benefit reasoning

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Metabolism and the Mind: Investigating the Link Between Glucose Control and Reinforcement Learning in Humans

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Parenting Practices and Children’s Cognitive Effort: A Laboratory Study

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Hearing Impairment: Reduced Pupil Dilation Response and Frontal Activation During Degraded Speech Perception

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People accurately predict the shape but not the parameters of skill learning curves

Zhang, X., McDougle, S. D., & Leonard, J. (2025) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106083 · Cited by 3

Effects of teaching neuroplasticity on motivation, inhibitory control and task performance, and the role of mindset theory

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Are metabolic costs needed to explain cognitive fatigue?

Embrey, J. R., & Inzlicht, M. (2025) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.08.001 · Cited by 3

Cognitive labor shapes the desire for social and monetary compensation

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Expecting social punishment facilitates control over a decision under uncertainty by recruiting medial prefrontal cortex

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Prolonged cognitive activity increases perception of fatigue but does not influence perception of effort, affective valence, or performance during subsequent isometric endurance exercise.

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When global and local information about attentional demands collide: evidence for global dominance

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Альфа- и тета- ритмы как маркеры когнитивного усилия

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Non-consciously processed physical activity for survival versus consciously deliberated exercise for health

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Explore your experimental designs and theories before you exploit them!

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Mild exogenous inflammation blunts neural signatures of bounded evidence accumulation and reward prediction error processing in healthy male participants

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Approaching lifelong learning: An integrated framework for explaining decision-making processes in personal and professional development

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Does Volunteering Crowd Out Donations? Evidence from Online Experiments

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Mind the instructions: Reward cues are liked first, wanted later

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Other-self similarity, motivation, emotion, and learning

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Hard choices: Children's understanding of the cost of action selection.

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When will's wont wants wanting

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The Drive to Appear Trustworthy Shapes Punishment and Moral Outrage in One-Shot Anonymous InteractionsPreprint

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A resource-rational theory of set size effects in visual working memoryPreprint

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A Comparison of Non-human Primate and Deep Reinforcement Learning Agent Performance in a Virtual Pursuit-Avoidance TaskPreprint

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Humans are primarily model-based and not model-free learners in the two-stage taskPreprint

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Neuronal adaptation in the course of the prolonged task improves visual stimuli processingPreprint

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An investigation of the effects of self-reported self-control strength on shooting performancePreprint

Englert, C., Dziuba, A., Wolff, W., & Giboin, L. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/2hncz · Cited by 3

Toward a Cognitive Science of Markets: Economic Agents As Sense-MakersPreprint

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The best laid plans: Computational principles of ACCPreprint

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Self-Control in SportsPreprint

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Control of mental representations in human planning.Preprint

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Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation in Anterior Cingulate Cortex Impairs Information Sampling and Learning in Loss ContextsPreprint

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Rationality and Relevance RealizationPreprint

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Theta-gamma cross-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation over the trough impairs cognitive controlPreprint

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Task Performance Errors and Rewards Affect Voluntary Task ChoicesPreprint

Spitzer, M., Musslick, S., Kiesel, A., & Dignath, D. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/3wd9r · Cited by 3

When it pays to be quick: dissociating control over task preparation and speed-accuracy trade-off in task switchingPreprint

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What is mental effort: a clinical perspectivePreprint

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The medial frontal cortex, performance monitoring, cognitive control, and decision making

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Experimental evidence that exerting effort increases meaningPreprint

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Meta-control

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Neural basis of cognitive control signals in anterior cingulate cortex during delay discountingPreprint

Seamans, J. K., Emberly, E. G., White, S., Morningstar, M. D., Linsenbardt, D. N., Ma, B., Czachowski, C. L., & Lapish, C. C. (2024) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2024.06.07.597894 · Cited by 3

When negative affect drives attentional control: The role of motivational orientation

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The effect of performance contingent reward prospects flexibly adapts to more versus less specific task goals

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Can we work it out? Affordances and constraints for cultivating perspective‐taking in digital contexts

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Cost-benefit tradeoff mediates the transition from rule-based to memory-based processing during practice

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No evidence for decision fatigue using large-scale field data from healthcare

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Cardiovascular responses to mental fatigue in a sequential task paradigm

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How self-compassion informs decision-making in ordinary times

Bailis, D. S., & Mathews, N. K. (2025) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298868.2025.2554968 · Cited by 2

Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Motivation, Reward, and Self-Control

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The Temporal Dynamics of Attention to Threat and GAD Symptoms: A Study of LPP Slopes

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The motivational consequences of boredom

Mlynski, C., Goschke, T., Korb, F. M., & Job, V. (2025) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2025.2568554 · Cited by 2

The importance of attention for variation in learning to learn

Nash Unsworth, A., & Miller, A. L. (2025) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/j.jml.2025.104711 · Cited by 3

Acute stress impairs decision-making at varying levels of decision complexity

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Perception of effort decreases with motor sequence learning

Goushe, B. G., Mangin, T., Pageaux, B., & Neva, J. L. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-20733-z · Cited by 3

The persuasive art of linguistics: an empirical study of project narration and donors’ contributions in the online charitable crowdfunding market

Huang, H., Li, Y., Qiu, L., Xiao, S., & Zhang, X. (2025) · Information & Management · doi:10.1016/j.im.2025.104298 · Cited by 2

When effort fuels risk: Cognitive exertion increases risk-taking for gains but reduces it for losses

Zheng, Y., Jiang, H., & Yang, Z. (2026) · Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-025-01381-2 · Cited by 2

Brain activity inhibition during Short Video Viewing: neurochemical insights

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Increasing the cognitive demand of upper-limb psychomotor tasks increases the perception of effort

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Characterizing alterations in attention networks under high mental workload

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Cognitive effort engagement across the adult life span

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Germane processes moderate the effectiveness of complex desirable difficulty tasks

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The Case of the Cognitive (Opti)miser: Electrophysiological Correlates of Working Memory Maintenance Predict Demand Avoidance

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On the Past, Present and Future of Volition Research in Sports

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Everything comes at a price: Considerations in modeling effort-based choice

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Cost–benefit considerations have limited effect on the decision to exert cognitive effort in real-world computer-programming tasks

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The neural mechanisms underlying effort process modulated by efficacy

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The M-Commerce of Solar Energy Applications: An Analysis of Solar Energy Consumers’ Effort Paradox

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An Integrative Model of Effortful Control

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Decomposing the Motivation to Exert Mental Effort

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Mental labour

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