title: Mental effort and fatigue as consequences of monotony.
abstract: Kurzban et al. associate mental effort and fatigue with a hypothetical mechanism able to estimate the utilities of possible actions and then select the action with a maximal utility. However, this approach faces fundamental problems. In my opinion, mental effort and fatigue are results of a conflict between the monotony of long-term activities and the novelty-processing systems.
authors.affiliation: Ecomon Ltd., Selskohosyastvennaya Street 12-A, Moscow, Russia. pnprudkov@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pavel N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Prudkov
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D005222:Mental Fatigue / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological