Individuals tend to avoid effortful tasks, regardless of whether they are physical or mental in nature. Recent experimental evidence is suggestive of individual differences in the dispositional willingness to invest cognitive effort in goal-directed behavior. The traits need for cognition (NFC) and self-control are related to behavioral measures of cognitive effort discounting and demand avoidance, respectively. Given that these traits are only moderately related, the question arises whether they reflect a common core factor underlying cognitive effort investment. If so, the common core of both traits might be related to behavioral measures of effort discounting in a more systematic fashion. To address this question, we aimed at specifying a core construct of cognitive effort investment that reflects dispositional differences in the willingness and tendency to exert effortful control. We conducted two studies (N = 613 and N = 244) with questionnaires related to cognitive motivation and effort investment including assessment of NFC, intellect, self-control and effortful control. We first calculated Pearson correlations followed by two mediation models regarding intellect and its separate aspects, seek and conquer, as mediators. Next, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis of a hierarchical model of cognitive effort investment as second-order latent variable. First-order latent variables were cognitive motivation reflecting NFC and intellect, and effortful self-control reflecting self-control and effortful control. Finally, we calculated Pearson correlations between factor scores of the latent variables and general self-efficacy as well as traits of the Five Factor Model of Personality for validation purposes. Our findings support the hypothesized correlations between the assessed traits, where the relationship of NFC and self-control is specifically mediated via goal-directedness. We established and replicated a hierarchical factor model of cognitive motivation and effortful self-control that explains the shared variance of the first-order factors by a second-order factor of cognitive effort investment. Taken together, our results integrate disparate literatures on cognitive motivation and self-control and provide a basis for further experimental research on the role of dispositional individual differences in goal-directed behavior and cost–benefit-models.

中文翻译：

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认知努力投资中的性格个体差异：建立核心结构

个人倾向于避免费力的工作，无论他们是身体上还是精神上的。最近的实验证据表明在将认知努力投入目标导向行为的倾向性上存在个体差异。认知（NFC）和自我控制的需求分别与认知努力折减和需求回避的行为量度有关。鉴于这些特质只是适度相关的，因此提出了一个问题，即它们是否反映了认知努力投资背后的共同核心因素。如果是这样，则这两个特征的共同核心可能与以更系统的方式进行的努力折价的行为度量有关。为了解决这个问题，我们旨在确定认知努力投资的核心结构，以反映在进行努力控制的意愿和倾向上的性格差异。我们进行了两项与认知动机和努力投入相关的问卷调查（N = 613和N = 244），包括NFC评估，智力，自我控制和努力控制。我们首先计算了皮尔逊相关性，然后计算了两个关于智力及其作为寻求调解者的不同方面的中介模型。接下来，我们对认知努力投资作为二阶潜在变量的分层模型进行了验证性因素分析。一阶潜在变量是反映NFC和智力的认知动机，而努力的自我控制则反映了自我控制和努力的控制。最后，为了进行验证，我们计算了潜在变量的因素得分与一般自我效能以及人格五因素模型特征之间的皮尔森相关性。我们的发现支持评估的性状之间的假设相关性，其中NFC和自我控制的关系是通过目标定向专门介导的。我们建立并复制了认知动机和努力自我控制的分层因素模型，该模型解释了认知努力投资的二阶因素与一阶因素的共同方差。综上所述，我们的研究结果整合了关于认知动机和自我控制的不同文献，并为进一步研究性格个体差异在目标导向的行为和成本效益模型中的作用提供了基础。