Virtual Reality (VR) environments have significant potential as a tool in mental health research, but are limited by technical factors and by mental health research factors. Technical difficulties include cost and complexity of virtual environment creation. Mental health research difficulties include current inadequacy of standards to specify needed details for virtual environment design. Techn...

general population surveys often report that only a small proportion of individuals with common mental disorders seek mental health treatment, suggesting a high level of unmet need for mental health care in the community. in recent years, however, the number of adults in industrialized countries who are treated with antidepressant medications has dramatically increased. this paper reviews the p...

We evaluated the hypothesis that individual differences in working memory capacity are explained by variation in mental effort, persons with low capacity exerting less effort than persons with high capacity. Groups previously rated high and low in working memory capacity performed the reading span task under three levels of incentive. The effort hypothesis holds that low span subjects exert les...

This paper describes a study investigating the influence of efficiency and effectiveness on modality selection and perceived mental effort. Each participant had to perform several tasks with a smart phone application offering touch screen and Wizard-of-Oz speech recognition simulation as input modalities. The results show that efficiency and effectiveness have a strong influence on modality sel...

Dual-task performance was examined in three experiments. The primary task was to repeat or to add one to four digits presented auditorily at a rate of 1 digit/second. This primary task was combined with three different secondary tasks in which subjects listened to a list of words either for later recognition of some of the words (Experiment 1) or for detection and a later report of a target wor...

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...

Recent theoretical and experimental papers support the prevailing opinion that large warm systems will rapidly lose quantum coherence, and that classical properties will emerge. This rapid loss of coherence would naturally be expected to block any critical role for quantum theory in explaining the interaction between our conscious experiences and the physical activities of our brains. However, ...

Cognitive load theory assumes effort may only lead to comprehension if the material-induced leaves enough resources for learning processes. Therefore, multimedia materials should induce as little non-relevant possible. Metacognition research that learners tap into their memory processes generate a mental representation of regulate learning. However, when judging comprehension, need make inferen...