P3b amplitude variation has been found to be sensitive to stimulus significance, the probability of occurrence of a stimulus (Duncan Johnson and Donchin, 1977), as well as to task and stimulus complexity (Isreal et al., 1980; Johnson, 1986) and effort spent on a task (Brocke et al., 1997).
Even if you think you're a conscientious, hardworking type, you may still be prone to social loafing, the tendency for people to put in less effort when working on a task with a group than they would do if alone.
In the real-effort paradigm, participants work on a task, and outcomes depend on their performance.
Willingness to exert effort on our task has previously been shown to be sensitive to individual differences specifically in behavioral apathy, indexed by the action initiation subscale of the Lille Apathy Rating Scale (LARS-e), modified for healthy people (Bonnelle et al. 2014).
Similarly, Perkins et al. [ 32] found a positive association between craving and subjects' perceived cash value of tobacco, although craving was not associated with effort expended on an operant task.
Dweck found that those with a fixed mindset tended to focus their effort on tasks where they had a high likelihood of success and avoided tasks where they may have had to struggle, which limited their learning.
It is but one grave example that should spur scientists to focus much more effort on the critical task of ensuring that students, and the general public, understand exactly how Science is derived from science.
