Psychological Research

Assistant Professor of Cognitive Research Dr. Rebecca B. Weldon, as part of a research team consisting of investigators from The George Washington University, and Yeungnam University in South Korea, recently published, "Cognitively demanding stimuli can acquire positive valence," in Psychological Research. 

The research noted that "Generally, people tend to avoid stimuli that require mental effort; effort can generate negative emotions. However, employing mental effort can also promote positive emotions, given a successful outcome. We investigated whether the level of cognitive effort associated with stimuli will elicit positive or negative emotions."

The team's experiments indicate that "stimuli associated with more cognitive effort...may be perceived as more positive after a successful outcome of a task." Read more about the findings here.