Cognitive Processing dissociation by mental effort manipulation in long demanding tasks

AbstractIndividuals uses cognitive resources to modulate performance in demanding tasks and a non-invasive and reliable way of measuring mental effort is pupillometry. This study aimed to test the mental effort related to different processing systems in long tasks with controlled and automatic demands. We conducted two experiments with healthy subjects: in Experiment 1 (n=15), using a metronome to ensure control on task pace, participants performed a serial number generation task (Counting; little to no effort tasks), a random number generation (RNG; effortful tasks), and no task (Unfilled interval; no effort at all). In experiment 2, (n=15) participants performed counting tasks with or wit…