Quantifying the motivational effects of cognitive fatigue through effort-based decision making

In this paper, we have outlined how motivation and effort considerations have long been influential in theoretical models of fatigue, and how these ideas hold strong parallels with more recent theories of effort-based decision making. Although some researchers have started to explore the overlap, both fields still largely exist as separate areas.

We would urge for a much stronger integration of these fields, and the adoption of decision methods to inform fatigue research. We are not the first to advocate the theoretical link between these fields, but we argue that the methodological development of effort-based decision making has now advanced to such extent that it can strongly accelerate insights in fatigue research.