Open AccessMental effort and discomfort: Testing the peak-end effect during a cognitively demanding task
Author(s) -
ChiaFen Hsu,
Lee Propp,
Larissa Panetta,
Shane M. Martin,
Stella Dentakos,
Maggie E. Toplak,
John D. Eastwood
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0191479
Subject(s) - task (project management) , psychology , audiology , working memory , cognition , analysis of variance , cognitive psychology , medicine , psychiatry , management , economics
We applied the peak-end paradigm that was first introduced in the pain literature to examine the experience of effort and discomfort during a cognitively demanding working memory task. A total of 401 participants were asked to rate their effort and discomfort during and after the administration of a working memory task, which systematically varied task difficulty within participants and task duration between participants. Over the course of the task, participants reported a decrease in reported effort and an increase in reported discomfort. Peak and end real-time ratings were significant predictors of retrospective ratings for effort and discomfort; average and initial ratings predicted a small amount of additional variance. The regression analyses with effort and discomfort were largely consistent, with some exceptions. End discomfort significantly predicted willingness to do the task again, but not end effort. These findings highlight the ways in which the experience of effort and discomfort are integrally related, yet importantly separate, during a cognitively demanding task.