We often must make decisions about how much effort to deploy to obtain rewards. Sometimes, the cognitive effort of a task such as remembering a long string of numbers or words  is perceived to be worth this effort for a reward; other times, it is not.

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This project is a collaboration with UBC researchers Catherine Winstanley and Alan Kingstone. The Winstanley lab’s work in rodents has shown that some rats, known as “workers”, are willing to engage in cognitive effort for a higher reward, while others, known as “slackers”, are less willing to do so. However, the reasons for these differences in the willingness to expend cognitive effort are not well understood. Although we know from a separate body of human research that people who have higher levels of chronic stress may be less willing to engage in cognitively effortful tasks, we do not know what aspects of chronic stress  may impact decisions about cognitive effort deployment. Chronic stress can manifest itself in feeling exhausted and unmotivated after working or studying for many weeks, or as continuing effects of repeated early childhood stress. It can contribute to depression and decreased motivation for obtaining rewards.

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The goal of this research program is to evaluate when and how people make decisions to deploy higher or lower levels of cognitive effort, through working memory tasks or word reading tasks, for high vs. low reward. We will use a variety of methods, including performance on online computer tasks to measure behavioural choices and human brain imaging (functional magnetic brain imaging, or fMRI) to measure brain activity as well as in-depth interviews to get a better understanding of subjective experience. In this way we will explore how and why individual differences in reward sensitivity and chronic stress impact people’s willingness and ability to deploy more vs. less cognitive effort for a higher vs. lower reward.