Effort-related Cardiovascular Response Research Articles

Subjective sleepiness better predicts effort-related cardiovascular response than sleep duration per se

Subjective sleepiness better predicts effort-related cardiovascular response than sleep duration per se

The effect of social comparison on effort: When similar and slightly better peers increase effort-related cardiovascular responses

Social comparison theory states that comparison with others should influence an individual's behavior (Festinger, 1954; Munkes & Diehl, 2003). This is primarily due to an upward pressure: the pressure to be better than others, which according to some theories should motivate individuals to increase their level of performance (Munkes & Diehl, 2003; Rijsman, 1974). The effect of upward pressure on individual performance has been tested, but never on effort. To address this gap, we conducted a within-subject design study with N = 40 participants engaged in five-minute video games while presented with scores of a similar, slightly better, or weaker peer, with a control condition omitting the peer's score. Effort-related cardiovascular responses were recorded with initial systolic time interval (ISTI) during the game and baseline conditions. The effect of social comparison on effort was tested with a 4 (social comparison) x 5 (minutes of the tasks) repeated-measures ANOVA on ISTI reactivity. Results showed higher ISTI reactivity, interpreted as increased effort, when participants competed with similar and slightly better peers compared to a weaker peer and the control condition in the last minute of the task, confirming our expectations (Pegna et al., 2019). These results illustrate that social comparison - through its effect on upward pressure - is sufficient to elicit changes in effort-related cardiovascular response.

Choice, noise, and effort: Personal choice shields against noise effects on effort-related cardiovascular response

Choice, noise, and effort: Personal choice shields against noise effects on effort-related cardiovascular response

Impact of sleep duration, light intensity, and alertness on effort-related cardiovascular response during cognitive performance

Impact of sleep duration, light intensity, and alertness on effort-related cardiovascular response during cognitive performance

Ambient lighting and effort-related cardiovascular response

Ambient lighting and effort-related cardiovascular response

Lighting color temperature impacts effort-related cardiovascular response to an auditory short-term memory task

To better understand the impact of environmental light on processes that underlie cognitive activity, Lasauskaite and Cajochen (2018) recently proposed a theoretical model that predicts how light's correlated color temperature (CCT) affects effort. Here we tested whether the effects of CCT of light on effort-related cardiovascular response also extend to another sensory input—hearing. In two experimental blocks, participants were exposed to either low (2800 K) or high correlated color temperature (6500 K) light with an illumination level of 500 lux for 15 min before and while they performed an auditory n-back task varying in difficulty level (low difficulty/1-back vs. moderate difficulty/2-back). Mental effort was indexed as sympathetic beta-adrenergic impact on the heart, measured via cardiac pre-ejection period and systolic blood pressure. Based on the theoretical model, we hypothesized that light with a high CCT should lead to lower mental effort compared to light with a low CCT in both the low and moderate task difficulty conditions. Moreover, moderate task difficulty should lead to stronger effort compared to an easy task. The results did not show expected differences in invested effort levels between the task difficulty conditions (1-back vs. 2-back task) measured by cardiac pre-ejection period and systolic blood pressure. However, in line with our prediction, the results indicated that higher CCT of light decreased effort during an auditory memory task. Task performance was higher in easy than moderate task difficulty but was not altered by lighting conditions. Furthermore, we found no significant associations between cardiovascular reactivity and changes in mood, sleepiness, light, task, or effort ratings. Taken together, our results provide first evidence that higher CCT of light reduces the amount of effort invested during cognitive tasks for which hearing is needed. Given that this study was conducted under controlled laboratory conditions and with healthy young participants, additional research is needed to demonstrate that our results generalize to real-life applications. Nevertheless, we recommend that lower CCT of light should be avoided in learning and work contexts, as it might lead to higher effort and cardiovascular reactivity that may contribute to the development of cardiovascular health problems. Instead, we recommend higher CCT of light during daytime for wellbeing and health.

Pain and gain: Monetary incentive moderates pain's impact on effort-related cardiac response.

Ample evidence suggests that pain leads to additional demand in cognitive functioning, presumably due to its negative affective component and its propensity to capture attention. To highlight the role of motivational incentive, two experiments tested the combined effect of pain and monetary incentive on effort-related cardiovascular response during cognitive performance. In both studies, healthy volunteers received individually adjusted painful or nonpainful thermal stimulations during a difficult cognitive task (4-back task in Experiment 1; short-term memory task in Experiment 2) and expected high (12 Swiss Francs in both experiments) or low monetary incentive (1 Swiss Franc in Experiment 1; 0.10 Swiss Francs in Experiment 2) for successful performance. Effort was primarily assessed as changes in cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP). We predicted pain to increase subjective task difficulty during cognitive performance. Moreover, according to motivational intensity theory, we expected this to increase effort only when high effort was justified by high monetary incentive. Correspondingly, pain should lead to low effort (disengagement) when monetary incentive was low. Effort in the nonpainful conditions was expected to fall in between these conditions. The results of both studies support our predictions. Our findings provide the first evidence for the moderating effect of monetary incentive on physical pain's impact on effort-related cardiovascular response. Accordingly, motivational incentives can counteract effort deficits associated with pain.

Individual differences in action-state orientation moderate task difficulty effects on effort-related cardiac response.

A quasi experiment (N=100 university students) tested whether individual differences in action-state orientation moderate task difficulty effects on resource mobilization assessed as cardiovascular response. According to action control theory, action-oriented individuals have higher self-regulation capacities in demanding situations than state-oriented persons. Action-orientated individuals should also self-generate positive affect in face of obstacles. Therefore, drawing on Wright's (1998) ability extension of motivational intensity theory and research on affective influences on effort-related cardiovascular response, we expected that action-orientation should lead to stronger effort-related cardiovascular responses in a difficult task, while state-orientation should do so in an easy task. Reactivity of cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) during performance on a short-term memory task corroborated this hypothesis. The present findings provide the first evidence of a link between action-state orientation and effort-related responses in the cardiovascular system.

Is cognitive conflict really effortful? Conflict priming and shielding effects on cardiac response.

Two experiments with N=221 university students investigated the impact of primed cognitive conflict on effort assessed as cardiac response in tasks that were not conflict-related themselves. Manifest cognitive conflict in cognitive control tasks is confounded with objective response difficulty (e.g., in incongruent Stroop task trials). This makes conclusions about the effortfulness of cognitive conflict itself difficult. We bypassed this problem by administrating pictures of congruent versus incongruent Stroop task stimuli as conflict primes. As predicted, primed cognitive conflict increased cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) responses in an easy attention task in Experiment 1. Accordingly, cognitive conflict itself is indeed effortful. This effect was replicated in an easy short-term memory task in Experiment 2. Moreover, as further predicted, the primed cognitive conflict effect on PEP reactivity disappeared when participants could personally choose task characteristics. This latter effect corresponds to other recent evidence showing that personal action choice shields against incidental affective influences on action execution and especially on effort-related cardiovascular response.

Incidental affective influences on effort-related cardiac response: The critical role of choosing task characteristics

This experiment tested whether personal choice vs. external assignment of task characteristics moderates the effect of incidental affective stimulation on effort-related cardiovascular response. We expected strong action shielding and low receptivity for incidental affective influences when participants could choose themselves the stimulus color of an easy memory task. By contrast, when the stimulus color was assigned, we expected weak action shielding and high receptivity. As expected, participants in the assigned color condition showed stronger cardiac pre-ejection period reactivity when exposed to sad music than when exposed to happy music during task performance. These music effects did not appear among participants who could personally choose the stimulus color. Our results replicate previous research by showing that personal choice leads to action shielding, whereas individuals remain receptive for affective influences during volition when task characteristics are assigned.

Implicit achievement motive limits the impact of task difficulty on effort-related cardiovascular response

In contrast to the motive literature, motivational intensity theory predicts that the implicit achievement motive (nAch) should only exert an indirect impact on effort by limiting the impact of task difficulty. To contrast these two views, sixty-eight participants with a low or high nAch performed an easy or difficult arithmetic task. Effort was assessed using cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP). Supporting motivational intensity theory’s view, PEP response was low in both easy-task conditions but stronger in the high-nAch group than in the low-nAch group in the difficult task. These findings suggest that nAch exerts an indirect effect on effort investment by setting the maximally justified effort instead of directly determining the amount of effort that is invested to satisfy the motive.

Boundary conditions of implicit affective influences on effort-related cardiovascular response

A large percentage of oil paintings in museum collections suffers from chemo-mechanical degradation phenomena that are primarily due to metal soap formation. Metal soaps result from the chemical reaction between metal ions present in the pigments and saturated fatty acids released by the oil paint. They appear as large protrusions that disfigure the surface texture, possibly triggering mechanical damage and flaking of the painting. Despite that these phenomena have been widely observed in situ, the interaction between chemical and mechanical degradation processes is far from being understood. This paper proposes a chemo-mechanical model to predict metal soap formation and the resulting chemo-mechanical damage in historical oil paintings. The chemical process is described by means of a diffusion-reaction model, whereby the spatial growth of the metal soap crystal takes place in a small reaction zone at the boundary of the crystal. Metal soap crystallization and growth, driven by the diffusion of saturated fatty acids and metal ions, result in a chemically-induced volumetric growth strain. This introduces stresses in the paint, ultimately promoting crack nucleation and propagation. The fracture process is simulated with a cohesive zone approach, using interface elements equipped with a traction-separation law. The mass flux-concentration relation at the interfaces is consistently specified as a function of the mechanical damage. A set of numerical simulations illustrates the capability of the model to predict metal soap crystallization and growth and the fracture induced in the paint. The study finally illustrates the influence of various chemical and mechanical parameters (i.e., the size of the metal soap nucleus, the mismatch in elastic stiffness parameters between the metal soap and paint materials, the fracture length scale of the paint material, the chemical growth strain and the reaction rate) on the chemo-mechanical degradation of the paint layer.

The effect of affect primes' visibility on effort-related cardiovascular response is moderated by gender

Crystallographically c-axis textured Zn2W barium ferrites (i.e., BaMe2Fe16O27), synthesized by traditional ceramic methods, are presented as a high-magnetic-remanence material for self-biased microwave and millimeter wave applications. A magnetic field orientation process was applied to obtain c-axis texture of ferrite materials while sintering parameters were systematically optimized to obtain high-performance materials for self-biased circulators and isolators. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to confirm structure, crystal orientation, and microstructural morphology of the Zn2W ferrite final product. Room temperature vibrating-sample magnetometry (VSM) was applied to measure hysteresis (M vs. H) loops that provided an evaluation of coercivity (Hc), magnetization (M), and magnetic remanence (Mr) and squareness ratio (Mr/Ms). The ferrite samples sintered at 1020 °C demonstrated excellent magnetic properties, such as high squareness ratio (∼0.8), relative density (89% of theoretical), 4πMS ∼ 3115 Gauss, and coercive fields of ∼1011 Oe.

Four minutes might not be enough for light colour temperature to affect sleepiness, mental effort, and light ratings

Light exerts a number of non-image-forming effects that are mostly apparent during night-time but can also been seen during daytime. Recently, we have shown that exposure to light of higher colour temperature prior to performing a cognitive task leads to a weaker effort-related cardiovascular response compared to exposure to light of lower colour temperature. This present study tested if presenting light of different colour temperatures during rather than before the task performance would lead to equivalent changes in effort mobilization. Participants performed a modified Sternberg short-memory task for eight minutes as lighting conditions were adjusted to one of four experimental lighting conditions (2800 K, 4000 K, 5000 K, or 6500 K) after the first four minutes, for the remaining four minutes. We predicted that effort-related cardiovascular response would strengthen with decreasing colour temperature. The results, however, did not follow this predicted pattern. No significant effects of lighting conditions on subjective measures were observed. Therefore, we conclude that four minutes might not be enough for light colour temperature to induce changes in effort-related cardiovascular response or affect subjective ratings of sleepiness and lighting.

Implicit Aging: Masked Age Primes Influence Effort-Related Cardiovascular Response in Young Adults

Based on the Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort model and evidence that aging is associated with cognitive difficulties, this experiment investigated the effect of masked age primes on young adults’ effort-related cardiovascular response during a mental arithmetic task. We predicted that elderly primes should activate the aging stereotype and thus render the performance difficulty concept accessible, while youth primes should activate the performance ease concept—similarly, as affect primes do. The accessible difficulty or ease concepts, in turn, should influence experienced demand and thus effort-related cardiovascular response during cognitive performance. A neutral prime control condition should fall into these conditions. We found the expected effects on performance-related responses of heart rate (HR) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP): For both measures, the elderly primes led to the strongest reactivity, the youth primes led to the weakest reactivity, and the neutral-prime control condition fell in between these conditions.

Influence of mortality salience on effort-related cardiovascular response to an identity-relevant challenge.

Influence of mortality salience on effort-related cardiovascular response to an identity-relevant challenge.

Implicit activation of the aging stereotype influences effort-related cardiovascular response: The role of incentive

Based on previous research on implicit effects on effort-related cardiovascular response and evidence that aging is associated with cognitive difficulties, we tested whether the mere activation of the aging stereotype can systematically influence young individuals' effort-mobilization during cognitive performance. Young participants performed an objectively difficult short-term memory task during which they processed elderly vs. youth primes and expected low vs. high incentive for success. When participants processed elderly primes during the task, we expected cardiovascular response to be weak in the low-incentive condition and strong in the high-incentive condition. Unaffected by incentive, effort in the youth-prime condition should fall in between the two elderly-prime cells. Effects on cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and heart rate (HR) largely supported these predictions. The present findings show for the first time that the mere activation of the aging stereotype can systematically influence effort mobilization during cognitive performance—even in young adults.

Motivational intensity theory and effort-related cardiovascular response: An overview

Motivational intensity theory and effort-related cardiovascular response: An overview

Understanding effort-related cardiovascular response in terms of motivational intensity theory: New perspectives after 40 years of research

Understanding effort-related cardiovascular response in terms of motivational intensity theory: New perspectives after 40 years of research

Predicting race time in male amateur marathon runners.

The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between anthropometry, training characteristics, muscular strength and effort-related cardiovascular response and marathon race time in male amateur runners. A total of 84 male amateur marathon runners aged between 23 and 70 years took part in this study (41.0±9.5 years). All of them competed in the 2013 edition of the Madrid Marathon with a finish time between 169.8 and 316 minutes (226.0±28.5 minutes). Age, running experience, number of marathon races finished, mean kilometers run weekly in the last three months, and previous personal best time in the 10 km, half marathon and marathon were recorded. Moreover, anthropometric characteristics, and the results from the Ruffier Test and a whole-body isometric force test were measured. After the marathon, the race time was registered. Training volume (r=-0.479; P=0.001), previous running milestones (marathon r=0.756; half-marathon r=0.812; 10-km r=0.732; P<0.001), cardiovascular fitness (r=0.371; P=0.001) and anthropometric variables (body mass, Body Mass Index, body fat percentage, skinfolds and lower leg volume) were correlated to marathon performance (P<0.05). Two regression models appeared from the data with r2>0.50. The best, including body fat percentage, heart rate change during the recovery after the Ruffier Test and the half-marathon race time, was strongly correlated with real marathon performance (r=0.77; P<0.001). A second regression model was proposed replacing the half-marathon performance with the 10-km race time, reducing the correlation to 0.73 (P<0.001). Marathon performance could be partially predicted by two different equations, including body fat percentage, recovery heart rate in the Ruffier Test and a half-marathon or 10-km performance.