Current usability evaluation methods are essentially holistic in nature. However, engineers that apply a component-based software engineering approach might also be interested in understanding the usability of individual parts of an interactive system. This paper examines the efficiency dimension of usability by describing a method, which engineers can use to test, empirically and objectively, ...

In this paper we discuss technology appropriation in the context of close personal relationships. We review literature that reveals how collaborative appropriation is a natural and necessary feature of technology adoption by relational partners. We then advance a position whereby appropriations in close relationships can be characterised as a form of discretionary effort investment. We end by r...

Reward cues have been found to increase the investment of effort in tasks even when cues are presented suboptimally (i.e. very briefly), making them hard to consciously detect. Such effort responses to suboptimal reward cues are assumed to rely mainly on the mesolimbic dopamine system, including the ventral striatum. To provide further support for this assumption, we performed two studies inves...

Despite its importance in everyday life, the computational nature of effort investment remains poorly understood. We propose an effort model obtained from optimality considerations, and a neurocomputational approximation to the optimal model. Both are couched in the framework of reinforcement learning. It is shown that choosing when or when not to exert effort can be adaptively learned, dependi...

This study looked at the influence of a Sport Education intervention program on students’ motivational responses in a high school physical education setting. Two intact groups were assigned curricular interventions: the Sport Education group (n = 25), which received eight 60-min lessons, and the comparison group (n = 26), which received a traditional teaching approach to sportbased activity. Pr...

According to prominent models in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and economics, effort (be it physical or mental) is costly: when given a choice, humans and non-human animals alike tend to avoid effort. Here, we suggest that the opposite is also true and review extensive evidence that effort can also add value. Not only can the same outcomes be more rewarding if we apply more (not less) eff...