Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T01:08:43.372Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Opportunity cost calculations only determine justified effort – Or, What happened to the resource conservation principle?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2013

Guido H. E. Gendolla  and
Michael Richter
Guido H. E. Gendolla
Affiliation:
Geneva Motivation Lab, FPSE, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. [email protected]@unige.chhttp://www.unige.ch/fapse/motivation/
Michael Richter
Affiliation:
Geneva Motivation Lab, FPSE, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. [email protected]@unige.chhttp://www.unige.ch/fapse/motivation/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We welcome the development of a new model on effort and performance and the critique on existing resource-based models. However, considering the vast evidence for the significant impact of experienced task demand on resource allocation, we conclude that Kurzban et al.'s opportunity cost model is only valid for one performance condition: if task demand is unknown or unspecified.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2013 , pp. 686 - 687
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ach, N. (1935) Analyse des Willens [Analysis of the will]. Urban Schwarzenberg.Google Scholar
Brehm, J. W. & Self, E. A. (1989) The intensity of motivation. Annual Review of Psychology 40(1):109–31.Google Scholar
Brehm, J. W., Wright, R. A., Solomon, S., Silka, L. & Greenberg, J. (1983) Perceived difficulty, energization, and the magnitude of goal valence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 19:21–48. doi: 10.1016/0022-1031(83)90003-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gendolla, G. H. E. & Richter, M. (2010) Effort mobilization when the self is involved: Some lessons from the cardiovascular system. Review of General Psychology 14:212–26.Google Scholar
Gendolla, G. H. E. & Wright, R. A. (2009) Effort. In: Oxford companion to the affective sciences, ed. Sander, D. & Scherer, K. R., pp. 134–35. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gendolla, G. H. E., Wright, R. A. & Richter, M. (2012) Effort intensity: Some insights from the cardiovascular system. In: The Oxford handbook of motivation, ed. Ryan, R. M., pp. 420–38. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, W. R. B. (1900) The principles of least action as a psychological principle. Mind 9:469–95. doi:10.1093/mind/IX.36.469.Google Scholar
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1990) Action phases and mind-sets. In: The handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior, vol. 2, ed. Higgins, E. T. & Sorrentino, R. M., pp. 53–92. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Heckhausen, H. & Gollwitzer, P. M. (1987) Thought contents and cognitive functioning in motivational versus volitional status of mind. Motivation and Emotion 11:101–20. doi: 10.1007/BF00992338.Google Scholar
Hillgruber, A. (1912) Fortlaufende Arbeit und Willensbetätigung [Continuous work and the will]. Quelle und Meyer.Google Scholar
Hull, C. (1943) Principles of behavior. Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Kool, W., McGuire, J. T., Rosen, Z. B. & Botvinick, M. M. (2010) Decision making and the avoidance of cognitive demand. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 139(4):665–82. doi:10.1037/a0020198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richter, M. & Gendolla, G. H. E. (2006) Incentive effects on cardiovascular reactivity in active coping with unclear task difficulty. International Journal of Psychophysiology 61:216–25. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2005.10.003.Google Scholar
Richter, M. & Gendolla, G. H. E. (2009) The heart contracts to reward: Monetary incentives and preejection period. Psychophysiology 46:451–57. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00795.x.Google Scholar
Tolman, E. C. (1932) Purposive behavior in animals and men. Century.Google Scholar
Wright, R. A. (2008) Refining the prediction of effort: Brehm's distinction between potential motivation and motivation intensity. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2:682–701. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, R. A. & Kirby, L. D. (2001) Effort determination of cardiovascular response: An integrative analysis with applications in social psychology. In: Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 33, ed. Zanna, M. P., pp. 255–307. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zipf, G. K. (1949) Human behaviour and the principle of least effort: An introduction to human ecology. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar