effortfulness

n. exertion that demands attentional and other cognitive resources: a feature of many psychological tasks that can be judged reliably by participants. Effortful tasks compete against each other under dual-task conditions (see dual-task competition; dual-task performance), indicating that effortfulness correlates with demands on mental resources. Novel skills often begin in an effortful way but become more automatic with practice (see automaticity). Because the sense of effort lacks conscious sensory qualities, it can be considered an experience of fringe consciousness. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies show major blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) correlates of mental effort in the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, with a wider spread of cortical BOLD activity occurring with increased effort. —effortful adj.

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Psychology term of the day

February 16th 2025

multiple comparison test

any of various statistical procedures used to follow up on a significant result from an analysis of variance by determining which groups in particular differ in their mean values. Examples include Duncan’s multiple range test, the Fisher least significant difference test, the REGWQ test, the Scheffé test, and Tukey’s honestly significant difference test. See also post hoc comparison.