Motivation can be identified as a dimension that determines learning success and causes the high dropout rate among online learners, especially in complex e-learning environments. It is argued that these learning environments represent a new challenge to cognitive load researchers to investigate the motivational effects of instructional conditions and help instructional designers to predict whi...

Background: In this opinion we consider the roles of physical and cognitive effort in choosing between actions that make different demands.
 View past: a less or more demanding task, each was not expected to have large effect.
 Current state: However, people are willing expend extra clear their minds (to avoid effort), phenomenon called pre-crastination.
 Future perspective: Beca...

BACKGROUND To further efforts to integrate mental health and primary care, this study develops a novel approach to quantifying the amount and sources of work involved in shifting care for common mental health problems to pediatric primary care providers. METHODS Email/web-based survey of a convenience sample (n = 58) of Maryland pediatricians (77% female, 58% at their site 10 or more years; 4...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate working conditions associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL) among nursing providers. METHODS Cross-sectional study conducted in a university hospital in the city of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, during 2004-2005. The study sample comprised 696 registered nurses, nurse technicians and nurse assistants, predominantly females (87.8%), who worked day and/or ni...

Why does performing certain tasks cause the aversive experience of mental effort and concomitant deterioration in task performance? One explanation posits a physical resource that is depleted over time. We propose an alternative explanation that centers on mental representations of the costs and benefits associated with task performance. Specifically, certain computational mechanisms, especiall...

Comparison processes contribute to many core phenomena of social cognition research. Whenever humans judge a given target, they rely on comparisons with a pertinent standard. We propose that comparison processes may be so ubiquitous because they reduce mental effort. To investigate this possibility, we used dense-array Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings together with a minimum norm source pr...