Effortfulness

In psychology, effortfulness is the subjective experience of exertion when performing an activity, especially the mental concentration and energy required. In many applications, effortfulness is simply reported by a patient, client, or experimental subject. There has been some work establishing an association among reported effortfulness and objective measures, such as in brain imaging. Effortfulness is used as a diagnostic indicator in medical and psychological diagnosis and assessment. It is also used as an indicator in psychological experimentation, especially in the field of memory.[1]

In the study of aging, Patrick Rabbitt proposed an effortfulness hypothesis in the 1960s: that as their hearing became less acute with age, people would require additional effort to make out what was said and that this effort made it harder to remember it.[2]


Neuroscience of Effortfulness

A study suggests that the neurotransmitter dopamine may be play a role in enhancing an animal’s motivation toward effortful actions. We also consider the contribution of brain structures, including the basal ganglia and anterior cingulate cortex, in the internal generation of action involving a translation of reward expectation into effortful action. Dopamine includes an effect on motivated behaviors toward desired goals, a concept referred to as “wanting”.

See also

References
  1. Language, Memory, and Aging, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 262, ISBN 9780521448765
  2. Tun; McCoy; Wingfield (2009), "Aging, Hearing Acuity, and the Attentional Costs of Effortful Listening", Psychology and Aging, 24 (3): 761–766, doi:10.1037/a0014802, PMC 2773464, PMID 19739934


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