The impact of mental fatigue on the effort cost perception: a study based on the “expected value of control” model

Details

Supervisors

Zenon, Alexandre

Faculty

Faculté des sciences de la motricité

Degree label

Master [60] en kinésithérapie et réadaptation

Abstract

Mental fatigue can be experienced after prolonged cognitive activity and is characterized by a subjective feeling of exhaustion, sometimes accompanied by a reduction in mental and physical performance. Neural mechanisms of this fatigue phenomenon remain unknown even though a lot of research has been performed on this issue. A recent study has proposed the Expected Value of Control (EVC) model which postulates that the value of control needed to select a specific task depends on the expected payoff and on the potential costs of this control. Here, we based our experiment on this model to assess the effect of mental fatigue on the effort cost perception. We postulated that mental fatigue could increase the effort cost perception. To test this hypothesis, we measured behavioral and physiological data (RPE, MFI, physical task: dynamo grip, mental task: 4-back, heart rate, respiratory rate and pupil size) during an Effortcost task which alternates physical and mental tasks. We included 3 levels of difficulty (participants were facing 3 different characters) during these tasks. Prior to these tests, we used 2 h of reading magazines (control condition) or 2 h of Stroop task to induce mental fatigue in participants (fatigue condition). Against our expectations, mental fatigue failed to have any impact on the effort cost perception. These results, including the poor character effect on participants’ behaviors, lead us to question the EVC model.