Perceived Difficulty and Motivated Cognitive Effort in a Computer-Simulated Forest Firefighting Task

Two studies (ns 28 and 55) were conducted to investigate the extent to which proposed relationships between perceived difficulty and motivated cognitive effort generalise to realistic, complex, ill-defined, ongoing situations. A computerised microworld generator, Fire Chief, was used to create an appropriate cognitive task. Using complementary research designs, no significant relationships were obtained between either perceived difficulty or proximity to preferred difficulty and on-task motivated cognitive effort assessed by self-referent importance, intended effort, and subjectively felt arousal. The implications of these findings for expectancy-value approaches to motivation are discussed. Attention is drawn to the extent to which the two studies illustrate the use of the Fire Chief microworld generator for the investigation of psychological phenomena.