Physical effort and task errors influence the choice for cognitive offloading.

ABSTRACT: Minimizing effort is a principle widely accepted to govern human behavior. We revisited this principle in an extended rotation paradigm. Participants freely chose to solve an object comparison task by either mental or manual rotation of one of two simultaneously presented objects. We manipulated the required force of manual rotation, stimulus complexity, as well as the angular mismatch between both objects, while carefully eliminating confounds of physical effort with time. Our study revealed that both physical and mental effort affect strategy choice. Additionally, strategy choice in a certain trial was influenced by error commissions in the previous trial. These error-induced strategy switches were asymmetric: participants were more inclined to switch following mental than manual rotatio

SUBMITTER: Aust R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12528289 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature