eLifeJClub
The resource elasticity of control.
eLife · · Journal Article · Open access
Solomyak, Emanuel + 1 more
Abstract ↗AI summary
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Over two pre-registered treasure-hunt studies (N =514), people infer the elasticity of control and adjust resource allocation to match it, rather than treating controllability as fixed.
- Why it matters: Real-world control may depend on how much effort, time, and money people invest, so misestimating this elasticity could cause inefficient, maladaptive allocation.
- What they did: Participants played environments with varying controllability and elasticity; Study 1 tested inference and adaptation, and Study 2 used a computational model to explain inference and estimate individual elasticity biases.
- The result: Overestimating elasticity is associated with elevated psychopathology marked by an impaired sense of control, providing a computational marker for control-related maladaptive behavior.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
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