Cognitive Effort

In general, people tend to avoid engaging in cognitively effortful activities. This tendency is often exacerbated in older adults despite the hypothesized benefits of cognitively effortful activities in helping to promote cognitive health and well-being in older age. My work studies the subjective value that participants place on performing cognitively effortful activities and how this differs across different domains and life stages. In parallel, I have studied cognitive effort outside of the lab using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to be able to better characterize the contexts and temporal dynamics that support cognitive effort-based decision making across the adult life span. My work also incorporates multimodal neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, PET) to understand the neural substrates that support cognitive effort-based decision-making across the adult life span.

Relevant Publications:

Crawford, J.L. & Braver, T.S. (In Press). Cognitive effort engagement across the adult life span. In Elliot, A.J. (Ed.) Advances in Motivation Science. Elsevier.

Crawford, J.L., Brough, R.E., Eisenstein, S.A., Peelle, J.E., & Braver, T.S. (2024). Generalized encoding of therelative subjective value of cognitive effort in dorsal ACC. Journal of Neuroscience 44(38), 1-14.

Crawford, J.L., English, T. & Braver, T.S. (2023). Cognitive effort-based decision-making across experimental and daily life indices in younger and older adults. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 78(1), 40-50.

Crawford, J.L., Eisenstein, S.A., Peelle, J.E. & Braver, T.S. (2022). Domain-general cognitive motivation: Evidence from economic decision-making – Final Registered Report. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7(1), 23.

Crawford, J.L., English, T., & Braver, T.S. (2022). Incorporating Ecological Momentary Assessment into multimethod investigations of cognitive aging: Promise and practical considerations. Psychology and Aging, 37(1), 84–96.