The mental effort involved in thinking can be really unpleasant, according to a new study by researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The work shows that even when brain work is voluntary (i.e. when it’s something people choose to do), it can be a huge mental burden.
O study was published this month in the journal Psychological Bulletin. “We already know that, in principle, people don’t like physical work,” explains psychologist Erik Bijleveld, in statement. “Due to our evolutionary history, we tend to avoid unnecessary physical effort as much as possible,” he adds. However, scientists still did not know whether this discomfort could also occur with mental effort.
To answer this question, researchers studied data on the level of irritation and frustration people feel when performing cognitive tasks, such as learning to use a new technology, playing a virtual reality game, finding their way in an unfamiliar environment, among others.
In total, 170 studies published between 2019 and 2020 were analyzed by the team, involving 4,670 participants who held different positions, such as healthcare workers, military personnel, amateur athletes, university students, among others.
In all cases, mental effort triggered negative feelings, the study found. Even when people felt rewarded for completing cognitive tasks or doing volunteer work, thinking too much can cause mental exhaustion. According to the researchers, the feelings were just as negative as those experienced by people who perform repetitive work.
“We mostly do Sudoku puzzles or play chess or Candy Crush because of the reward, not because we really enjoy it,” Bijleveld argues. In other words, this means that we are not intrinsically motivated to think much, but the pleasant feeling we get when we finish a task or cognitive challenge entices some people to do these activities.
The researchers believe the findings could provide insights for developers of educational materials or new software and online games. “If people have to master a new application or mathematical method, that requires mental effort. If you want it to work, it would be good to reward users,” Bijleveld suggests. Such a reward could be new elements in a game, for example, such as visual and sound effects.
Generative AI — such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini — can also spare people the unpleasant feeling of performing mental tasks. However, these tools can take away the sense of reward that cognitive tasks provide when completed.
“We may not experience these negative feelings as often while working, but the results of our work will also not be as rewarding because it will not have required as much effort. If you work hard at something, it becomes more meaningful. AI can sometimes take that away from us,” the researcher says.
Source: CNN Brasil
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