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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci 2018; 11(02): 74-84
DOI: 10.5935/1984-0063.20180016
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The role of sleep deprivation and fatigue in the perception of task difficulty and use of heuristics

Mindy Engle-Friedman
1   Baruch College, City University of New York, Psychology - New York - NY - USA.
,
Gina Marie Mathew
1   Baruch College, City University of New York, Psychology - New York - NY - USA.
,
Anastasia Martinova
1   Baruch College, City University of New York, Psychology - New York - NY - USA.
,
Forrest Armstrong
1   Baruch College, City University of New York, Psychology - New York - NY - USA.
,
Viktoriya Konstantinov
1   Baruch College, City University of New York, Psychology - New York - NY - USA.
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Objectives

This study investigated the effects of sleep deprivation on perception of task difficulty and use of heuristics (mental shortcuts) compared to naturally-experienced sleep at home. Methods: Undergraduate students were screened and assigned through block-random assignment to Naturally-Experienced Sleep (NES; n=19) or Total Sleep Deprivation (TSD; n=20). The next morning, reported fatigue, perception of task difficulty, and use of “what-is-beautiful-is-good,” “greedy algorithm,” and “speed-accuracy trade-off” heuristics were assessed. Results: NES slept for an average of 354.74 minutes (SD=72.84), or 5.91 hours. TSD rated a reading task as significantly more difficult and requiring more time than NES. TSD was significantly more likely to use the greedy algorithm heuristic by skipping instructions and the what-is-beautiful-is-good heuristic by rating an unattractive consumer item with a favorable review as poor quality. Those in Total Sleep Deprivation who chose more difficult math problems made this selection to finish the task more quickly in findings approaching significance, indicating use of the speed-accuracy trade-off heuristic. Collapsed across conditions, self-reported fatigue predicted greater perceived difficulty in both the reading task and a visuo-motor task, higher quality rating for the attractive consumer item, and lower quality rating for the unattractive consumer item. Conclusions: Findings indicate sleep deprivation and fatigue increase perceptions of task difficulty, promote skipping instructions, and impair systematic evaluation of unappealing stimuli compared to naturally-experienced sleep.

Sleep Deprivation - Fatigue - Perception - Heuristics - Effort-Mental - Decision Making - Motivation


Publication History

Received: 06 February 2017

Accepted: 19 April 2018

Article published online:
13 October 2023

© 2023. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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