Effort-based decision-making: task design and model-agnostic results.
A: The task can be divided into four phases: a calibration phase to determine individual clicking capacity to calibrate effort-levels, practice trials that participants practice until successful on every effort-level, instructions and a quiz that must be passed, and the main task, consisting of 64 trials split into 4 blocks. B: Each trial consists of an offer with a reward (2,3,4, or 5 points) and an effort level (1,2,3, or 4, scaled to the required clicking speed and time the clicking must be sustained for) that subjects accept or reject. If accepted, a challenge at the respective effort level must be fulfilled for the required time to win the points. If rejected, subjects wait for a matched amount of time and receive one point. C: Proportion of accepted trials, averaged across participants and effort-reward combinations. Error bars indicate standard errors. D: Staircasing development of offered effort and reward levels across the task, averaged across participants.