Resource Depletion and Effort-Related Cardiovascular Response

本研究关注的是面对挑战时疲劳对努力和相关心血管（CV）反应的影响。这项工作假设行为是由能量和其他绩效资源维持的，而这些资源随着人们工作的时间和精力的增加而暂时耗尽。人们对某一特定类型的活动（如数学）的资源消耗越少（如疲劳），他们在相关挑战（如平衡支票簿）方面的能力就越差，这些挑战看起来就越困难。根据直觉，人们可能会认为疲劳导致的困难感会导致人们降低努力程度，从而降低CV的激发。然而，最近一项对努力强度的正式分析显示了一些不同的东西。具体来说，它表明感知应该有不同的影响取决于(1)手头的挑战的难度，(2)迎接挑战的重要性。从理论上讲，关键在于疲劳是否会让人们从相信成功是可能的、值得的转变为不相信成功是可能的、值得的。如果难度和重要性条件使得成功对非疲劳组来说是可能的和值得的，但对疲劳组来说是不可能的或极其困难的，那么非疲劳组的努力和相关的CV反应应该更大。原因是那些非疲劳组的人应该付出必要的努力，而那些疲劳组的人应该保留他们的努力。如果难度和重要性条件是这样的，那么对于疲劳组和非疲劳组来说，成功似乎是可能的和值得的，那么疲劳组的努力和相关的CV反应应该更大。在这种情况下，原因是因为疲劳组中的人应该付出额外的努力来补偿他们相对缺乏的性能资源（即疲劳）。最后，如果难度和重要性条件使得成功对非疲劳组和疲劳组来说都是不可能的或极其困难的，那么两组的努力和相关的CV反应应该是相等的，因为他们都应该保留努力。这种关于疲劳影响的有点违反直觉的观点值得注意，部分原因是它提供了关于疲劳在现实世界（例如，教育，工作）环境中何时应该和不应该损害表现的见解。它还值得注意，因为它强调了慢性疲劳可能造成健康风险的一种情况。具体来说，当慢性疲劳导致人们特别努力工作，从而表现出夸大的CV反应时，可能会对健康构成威胁。五项研究将在四年内进行。中心目的将是评估疲劳对努力和CV对挑战反应的影响的可能性，这种影响取决于成功的难度和重要性。它将通过操纵难度和重要性变量来实现，并评估这些操作对不同程度疲劳的人的反应的影响。研究的另一个目的将是评价疲劳影响只延伸到与已耗尽的绩效系统相关的任务的观点。这将通过评估对与引起疲劳的活动或强或弱相关的任务的反应来实现。在某种程度上，疲劳效应是任务特定的，它们应该只在密切相关的任务上被发现。由于研究人员最近假设自我调节（即约束或抑制）活动可能会利用一种不涉及维持其他行为的特殊绩效资源，因此将特别注意比较在涉及强调节成分的任务中获得的反应与在涉及弱调节成分的任务中获得的反应。

This research is concerned with the influence of fatigue on effort and associated cardiovascular (CV) responses in people confronted with challenges. The work assumes that behavior is sustained by energy and other performance resources that are temporarily depleted the longer and more vigorously people perform. The more resource-depleted (i.e., fatigued) people become with respect to a particular type of activity (e.g., math), the less capable they should feel in relation to relevant challenges (e.g., balancing a checkbook) and the more difficult those challenges should appear to be. Based on intuition, one might expect that perceptions of difficulty that result from fatigue would lead people to lower their effort and display reduced CV arousal as a result. However, a recent formal analysis of effort intensity suggests something different. Specifically, it suggests that the perceptions should have a different impact depending on (1) the difficulty of the challenge at hand, and (2) the importance of meeting that challenge. In theory, the key is whether fatigue causes people to move from a point of believing success is possible and worthwhile to a point of believing it is not. If difficulty and importance conditions are such that success appears possible and worthwhile to a non-fatigued group, but impossible or excessively difficult to a fatigued group, effort and associated CV responses should be greater in the non-fatigued group. The reason is because those in the non-fatigued group should exert the required amount of effort, whereas those in the fatigued group should withhold their effort. If difficulty and importance conditions are such that success seems possible and worthwhile to a fatigued group as well as to a non-fatigued group, effort and associated CV responses should be greater in the fatigued group. The reason in this case is because those in the fatigued group should have to exert extra effort to compensate for their relative lack of performance resources (i.e., for their fatigue). Finally, if difficulty and importance conditions are such that success appears impossible or excessively difficult to a non-fatigued group as well as to a fatigued group, effort and associated CV responses should be equivalent for the groups as they both should withhold effort. This somewhat counterintuitive perspective on fatigue influence is noteworthy in part because it offers insight into when fatigue should and should not impair performance in real world (e.g., education, work) settings. It also is noteworthy because it highlights a condition under which chronic fatigue may pose a health risk. Specifically, chronic fatigue may pose a health risk when it leads people to strive especially hard and, as a consequence, manifest exaggerated CV responses. Five studies will be conducted over four years. The central purpose will be to evaluate the possibility that the influence of fatigue on effort and CV response to challenge varies depending on the difficulty and importance of success. It will be achieved by manipulating difficulty and importance variables and assessing the impact of those manipulations on responses of people who have been fatigued to different degrees. A further purpose of the studies will be to evaluate the idea that fatigue influence extends only to tasks relevant to the performance system that has been depleted. This will be achieved by assessing responses to tasks strongly and weakly related to the activity used to induce fatigue. To the degree that fatigue effects are task specific, they should be found only on the strongly related tasks. Because investigators have hypothesized recently that self-regulatory (i.e., restraint or inhibitory) activity may draw on a special performance resource that is not involved in sustaining other behavior, special attention will be devoted to comparing responses obtained in relation to tasks involving strong regulatory components with responses obtained in relation to tasks involving weak regulatory components.