Effort

Effort refers to the expenditure of physical or mental energy toward the completion of a task or achievement of a goal. It includes attention, persistence, planning, and resource mobilization. People can exert different levels of effort on a given task, and the amount of effort often depends on perceived value, difficulty, and expected payoff. Effort is a process variable, whereas outcomes like accuracy or speed are result variables.

Measuring effort: Researchers assess effort with self-reports such as perceived effort scales, behavioral indicators like time-on-task and task persistence, and physiological measures including heart rate and pupil dilation. In some settings, effort is inferred from anomalies in performance when task demands increase or incentives change.

Determinants: Motivation, ability, task demands, fatigue, and incentives influence how much effort a person expends. The theory of effort allocation posits that individuals allocate effort to maximize expected value, considering success probability and reward relative to cost.

Types and contexts: Mental effort involves cognitive control, problem-solving, and memory; physical effort involves muscular or energetic expenditure. Effort varies across domains such as education, work, sports, and daily activities. Excessive or chronic effort without adequate recovery can lead to fatigue; insufficient effort can result in underachievement.

Significance: Understanding effort helps explain why people engage in tasks, persist despite difficulty, and how motivation, personality, and environment shape performance. In policy and management, strategies to increase effort include clear goals, feedback, incentives, and task design that aligns effort with valued outcomes.