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Representative publications

Shenhav, A. (2024). The affective gradient hypothesis: An affect-centered account of motivated behavior. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 28(12):1089-1104. [Article]

Shenhav, A., Prater Fahey, M., & Grahek, I. (2021). Decomposing the motivation to exert mental effort. Current Directions in Psychological Science 30(4): 307-314. [Article]

*Frömer, R, *Lin, H., Dean Wolf, C.K., Inzlicht, M. & Shenhav, A. (2021). Expectations of reward and efficacy guide cognitive control allocation. Nature Communications, 12: 1030. [Article, Press Release, Supplement, Code]

Leng, X., Yee, D., Ritz, H., & Shenhav, A. (2021). Dissociable influences of reward and punishment on adaptive cognitive control. PLOS Computational Biology. [Article]

Grahek, I., Shenhav, A., Musslick, S., Krebs, R. M., & Koster, E. H. W. (2019). Motivation and Cognitive Control in Depression. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 102: 371-381. [Article, Code]

Inzlicht, M., Shenhav, A., & Olivola, C.Y. (2018). The effort paradox: Effort is both costly and valued. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 22(4): 337-349. [Article]

Shenhav, A., Musslick, S., Lieder, F., Kool, W., Griffiths, T.L., Cohen, J.D., & Botvinick, M.M. (2017). Toward a rational and mechanistic account of mental effort. Annual Reviews of Neuroscience 40: 99-124. [Article] 

All publications

Xu, A., Frömer, R., Wolff, W., Shenhav, A. Do you ever get tired of being wrong? The unique impact of feedback on subjective experiences of effort. [Preprint]

*Prater Fahey, M., *Yee, D.M., Leng, X., Tarlow, M., & Shenhav, A. (2025). Motivational context determines the impact of aversive outcomes on mental effort allocation. Cognition 254:105973. [Article]

Shenhav, A. (2024). The affective gradient hypothesis: An affect-centered account of motivated behavior. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 28(12):1089-1104. [Article]

Zhang, Y., Leng, X., & Shenhav, A. (2024). Make or break: The influence of expected challenges and rewards on the motivation and experience associated with cognitive effort exertion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 36 (12): 2863–2885. [Article]

Bustamante, L.A., Oshinowo, T., Lee, J.R., Tong, E., Burton, A.R., Shenhav, A., Cohen, J.D., Daw, N.D. (2023). Effort Foraging Task reveals positive correlation between individual differences in the cost of cognitive and physical effort in humans and relationship to self-reported motivation and affect. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (50): e2221510120.[Preprint]

Grahek, I., Leng, X., Prater Fahey, M., Yee, D., & Shenhav, A. (2022). Empirical and Computational Evidence for Reconfiguration Costs During Within-Task Adjustments in Cognitive Control. In Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, CA. [Paper].

Grahek, I., Frömer, R., Prater Fahey, M., & Shenhav, A. (2023). Learning when effort matters: Neural dynamics underlying updating and adaptation to changes in performance efficacy. Cerebral Cortex 33(5): 2395–2411. [Article]

Yee, D. M., Leng, X., Shenhav, A., & Braver, T. S. (2022). Aversive Motivation and Cognitive Control. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 133, 104493. [Article]

Shenhav, A., Prater Fahey, M., & Grahek, I. (2021). Decomposing the motivation to exert mental effort. Current Directions in Psychological Science 30(4): 307-314. [Article]

Leng, X., Yee, D., Ritz, H., & Shenhav, A. (2021). Dissociable influences of reward and punishment on adaptive cognitive control. PLOS Computational Biology. [Article]

*Frömer, R, *Lin, H., Dean Wolf, C.K., Inzlicht, M. & Shenhav, A. (2021). Expectations of reward and efficacy guide cognitive control allocation. Nature Communications, 12: 1030. [Article, Press Release, Supplement, Code]

Bustamante, L., Lieder, F., Musslick, S., Shenhav, A., Cohen, J.D. (2021). Learning to Overexert Cognitive Control in a Stroop Task. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience. [Article]

Shenhav, A., Musslick, S., Botvinick, M. M., & Cohen, J. D. Misdirected vigor: Differentiating the control of value from the value of control. [Preprint; Target Article]

Ritz, H., DeGutis, J., Frank M.J., Esterman, M., & Shenhav, A. (2020). An evidence accumulation model of motivational and developmental influences over sustained attention. In Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, CA. [Paper]

Leng, X., Ritz, H., Yee, D., & Shenhav, A. (2020). Dissociable influences of reward and punishment on adaptive cognitive control. In Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, CA. [Paper]

Grahek I., Musslick S., & Shenhav A. (2020). A computational perspective on the roles of affect in cognitive control. International Journal of Psychophysiology 151: 25-34. [Article, Code].

Grahek, I., Shenhav, A., Musslick, S., Krebs, R. M., & Koster, E. H. W. (2019). Motivation and Cognitive Control in Depression. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 102: 371-381. [Article, Code]

Ritz, H., Shenhav, A. (2019) Parametric control of distractor-oriented attention. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, CA. [Paper]

Musslick S., Cohen, J.D., Shenhav A. (2019). Decomposing individual differences in cognitive control: A model-based approach. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, CA. [Paper]

Lieder, F., Shenhav, A., Musslick, S., & Griffiths, T. (2018). Rational metareasoning and the plasticity of cognitive control. PLOS Computational Biology 14(4): e1006043. [Article]

Inzlicht, M., Shenhav, A., & Olivola, C.Y. (2018). The effort paradox: Effort is both costly and valued. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 22(4): 337-349. [Article]

Musslick, S., Cohen, J.D., & Shenhav, A. (2018). Estimating the costs of cognitive control from task performance: theoretical validation and potential pitfalls. In Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Madison, WI: Cognitive Science Society. [Paper]

Shenhav, A., Musslick, S., Lieder, F., Kool, W., Griffiths, T.L., Cohen, J.D., & Botvinick, M.M. (2017). Toward a rational and mechanistic account of mental effort. Annual Reviews of Neuroscience 40: 99-124. [Article] 

Shenhav, A., Botvinick, M.M., & Cohen, J.D. (2016). Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the value of control. Nature Neuroscience 19(10): 1286-1291. [Article; News & Views]

Shenhav, A. & Botvinick, M.M. (2013). Motivated action: New light on prefrontal-neuromodulatory circuits. Current Biology 23(4): R161-R163. [Commentary; Target Article]