Organizations are increasingly expecting individuals to engage in task proactivity, that is, to find better ways of doing their job. While prior research has demonstrated the benefits of task proactivity, little is known about its cognitive costs. To investigate this issue, we build theory on how task proactivity affects end-of-day cognitive performance. We propose that task proactivity involves deviating from established ways of working and engaging in cognitively demanding activities requiring high levels of mental effort, which manifest as an erosion of end-of-day cognitive performance. In two daily diary studies, we found that individuals engaging in task proactivity experience lower end-of-day cognitive performance (Study 1 over five consecutive workdays: n = 163, k = 701; Study 2 with multiple daily assessments over seven consecutive workdays: n = 93, k = 471), even when controlling for task performance (Study 1) and beginning-of-day cognitive performance (Study 2). In two experiments, we then show that simulating task proactivity results in greater mental effort and lower routineness but not in greater ego depletion (Study 3: N = 318 and Study 4: N = 319) or increased self-control demands, -effort, or -motivation (Study 4). This provides support for our proposed cognitive pathway. Our findings enhance our understanding of the cognitively demanding nature of task proactivity and provide empirical support for its cognitive costs using a mental fatigue lens. They also suggest that the impact of a cognitively demanding activity like task proactivity may persist throughout the day and carry over to other tasks involving cognitive performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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加倍努力的认知成本：努力提高与认知表现的关系。


组织越来越期望个人参与任务主动性，即找到更好的工作方式。虽然先前的研究已经证明了任务主动性的好处，但对其认知成本知之甚少。为了研究这个问题，我们建立了关于任务主动性如何影响日终认知表现的理论。我们提出任务主动性涉及偏离既定的工作方式并从事需要大量脑力劳动的认知要求高的活动，这表现为一天结束时认知能力的侵蚀。在两项每日日记研究中，我们发现参与任务主动性的人在一天结束时的认知表现较低（研究 1 连续五个工作日：n = 163，k = 701;研究 2 在连续 7 个工作日内进行多次每日评估：n = 93，k = 471），即使控制了任务表现（研究 1）和一天开始时的认知表现（研究 2）。在两个实验中，我们然后表明，模拟任务主动性会导致更大的脑力劳动和更低的常规性，但不会导致更大的自我消耗（研究 3：N = 318 和研究 4：N = 319）或增加自我控制需求、努力或动机（研究 4）。这为我们提出的认知途径提供了支持。我们的研究结果增强了我们对任务主动性认知要求性质的理解，并使用精神疲劳镜头为其认知成本提供了实证支持。他们还表明，任务主动性等认知要求高的活动的影响可能会持续一整天，并延续到涉及认知表现的其他任务。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。