The first goal of this study is to examine the capacity of prominent survey-based effort proxies to predict real effort provision in children. Do children who “talk the talk” of hard work also “walk the walk” and make costly effort investments? The second goal is to assess how objective and subjective effort measures are related under two conditions: intrinsic (nonincentivized) motivation and extrinsic (incentivized) motivation. We measure objective “real” effort using three tasks and subjective self-reported effort using four psychological characteristics (conscientiousness, need for cognition, locus of control and delay of gratification) to understand to what extent material incentives affect the cognitive effort of children with different self-reported personalities. Data stem from real-effort experiments carried out with 420 fifth grade students from primary schools in Madrid, Spain. We find that some of the subjective and objective effort measures are positively correlated. Yet the power of personality to predict real effort is only moderate, but greater and more so in the extrinsic than the intrinsic motivation condition. In particular, need for cognition and conscientiousness are the most relevant correlates of objective effort. Overall, we find there is a big difference between saying and doing when it comes to exerting effort, and this difference is even larger when there are no direct material incentives in place to reward effort provision.

这项研究的第一个目标是检查基于调查的显着努力代理预测儿童实际努力提供量的能力。那些“说起话来”努力工作的孩子是否也“散步”并进行了昂贵的努力投资？第二个目标是评估在以下两个条件下客观和主观努力措施之间的关系：内在（非激励）动机和外在（激励）动机。我们使用三个任务来衡量客观的“真实”努力，并使用四个心理特征（尽责，认知需要，控制源和满足感延迟）来衡量主观自我报告的努力，以了解物质激励在多大程度上影响了不同儿童的认知努力自我报告的性格。数据来自对西班牙马德里的420名小学五年级学生进行的真实努力实验。我们发现，一些主观和客观的努力措施是正相关的。然而，人格预测实际努力的力量只是适度的，但在外在性方面比内在动机条件要强得多。特别是，对认知和尽责性的需求是客观努力的最相关因素。总体而言，我们发现在做出努力时，说与做之间存在很大差异，而在没有直接的奖励措施来奖励努力时，这种差异会更大。然而，人格预测实际努力的力量只是适度的，但在外在性方面比内在动机条件要强得多。特别是，对认知和尽责性的需求是客观努力的最相关因素。总体而言，我们发现在做出努力时，说与做之间存在很大差异，而在没有直接的奖励措施来奖励努力时，这种差异会更大。然而，人格预测实际努力的力量只是适度的，但在外在性方面比内在动机条件要强得多。特别是，对认知和尽责性的需求是客观努力的最相关因素。总体而言，我们发现在做出努力时，说与做之间存在很大差异，而在没有直接的奖励措施来奖励努力时，这种差异会更大。