ArticleCognitive research: principles and implications2021
Visual search under physical effort is faster but more vulnerable to distractor interference.
Article in Cognitive research: principles and implications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Amplitude-modulated kilohertz stimulation targeting beta-band activity disrupts motor learning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Mental cost of simple(st) physical exertion.Cognition · 2026Article
- Distractor avoidance and early quitting in visual search.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2025Article
- Effects of physical effort on temporal processing.Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance · 2025Article
- Easy does it: Selection during interactive search tasks is biased towards objects that can be examined easily.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2025Article
- Getting a grip on visual search: Relating effort exertion to the control of attention.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2025Review
- Knowing where to go: Spatial memory guides eye and body movements in a naturalistic visual search task.Journal of vision · 2024Article
- Elevated and accelerated: Locus coeruleus activity and visual search abilities in autistic children.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2023Article
- Motor demands influence conflict processing in a mouse-tracking Simon task.Psychological research · 2023Article
- Monitoring Inattention in Construction Workers Caused by Physical Fatigue Using Electrocardiograph (ECG) and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Sensors.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effortfulness of visual working memory: Gauged by physical exertion.Journal of experimental psychology. General · 2023Article
- Detrimental effects of effortful physical exertion on a working memory dual-task in older adults.Psychology and aging · 2023Article
- Contributions of global and local processing on medical image perception.Journal of medical imaging (Bellingham, Wash.) · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Cognition and action are often intertwined in everyday life. It is thus pivotal to understand how cognitive processes operate with concurrent actions. The present study aims to assess how simple physical effort operationalized as isometric muscle contractions affects visual attention and inhibitory control. In a dual-task paradigm, participants performed a singleton search task and a handgrip task concurrently. In the search task, the target was a shape singleton among distractors with a homogeneous but different shape. A salient-but-irrelevant distractor with a unique color (i.e., color singleton) appeared on half of the trials (Singleton distractor present condition), and its presence often captures spatial attention. Critically, the visual search task was performed by the participants with concurrent hand grip exertion, at 5% or 40% of their maximum strength (low vs. high physical load), on a hand dynamometer. We found that visual search under physical effort is faster, but more vulnerable to distractor interference, potentially due to arousal and reduced inhibitory control, respectively. The two effects further manifest in different aspects of RT distributions that can be captured by different components of the ex-Gaussian model using hierarchical Bayesian method. Together, these results provide behavioral evidence and a novel model for two dissociable cognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of simple muscle exertion on the ongoing visual search process on a moment-by-moment basis.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.