Publications

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. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2221510120 [PDF]

Bustamante, L. A., Lieder, F., Musslick, S., Shenhav, A., & Cohen, J. D. (2021). Learning to Overexert Cognitive Control in a Stroop Task. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00845-x

Ongoing Projects

Motivation for Cognitive and Physical Effort in Depression. Study at the Rutgers-Princeton Center for Computational Neuropsychiatry. This project studies the effects of symptoms of depression on decision making. Participants with or without depression complete a behavioral task that measures individual preferences for engaging in cognitive and physical tasks to obtain reward. This study is supported by The New Jersey Alliance for Clinical Translational Science and the New Jersey Health Foundation. 

Dissertation: Quantifying Individual Differences in the Cost of Cognitive and Physical Effort in Humans

Advisors: Jonathan Cohen, Nathaniel Daw, Amitai Shenhav 

Abstract: 

How do people decide which goals to pursue? A substantial body of work has been devoted to understanding how people weigh potential future rewards against effort costs required to achieve those rewards. However, attempts to formalize the mechanisms underlying such effort-based decisions have met challenges both theoretical (e.g., how do people learn when effort is needed?) and methodological (e.g., how can the factors contributing to such decisions be isolated and measured?). This thesis advances theory and measurement of cognitive effort-based decision-making. 

Chapter 2 proposes a theory that the value of cognitive effort is learned through reinforcement based on features, and generalized across situations that share features. We predicted that transfer learning could lead people to overexert effort, even when it harmed performance. In the experiment participants learned whether to give a low- or high- effort response to a stimulus. Consistent with the theory, participants overexerted effort for stimuli that combined features previously rewarded for the high-effort response, but which were rewarded for the low-effort response.

Chapter 3 introduces the Cognitive Effort Tradeoff Task. Participants made explicit choices between performing specified numbers of trials that differed in their cognitive effort requirements. A utility model fit to choices captured the cost of high-effort trials in terms of how many more low-effort trials a participant would complete to avoid high-effort trials. We found that individual differences in cognitive effort costs were related to model-based reinforcement learning strategy, but not to strategic exploration. 

Chapter 4 introduces the Effort Foraging Task, which embedded effort costs into a patch foraging sequential decision task. Participants chose between harvesting a depleting patch, or traveling to a new patch, costing time and effort. Participants' exit thresholds were sensitive to cognitive and physical effort effort demands, consistent with the high-effort tasks having a monetary cost. Cognitive and physical effort costs were positively correlated, suggesting that a unified decision mechanism computes the cost of actions across domains. We found patterns of correlation between both novel tasks and self-reported apathy, anhedonia, depression, anxiety, and effort-seeking.

Professional Activities

Co-organizer of the interdiscplinary Mental Effort Workshop (2020, 2021, 2022)

Tutorial presenter at the 2021 Mental Effort Workshop. Title: Individual Differences Data Analysis With STAN (open-access tutorial)

Co-organizer of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute Retreat (2016).

Mentorship 

Proud mentor for:

Princeton University Honors Thesis Students; Jennifer No (2021 - 2022), Temitope Oshinowo (2019 - 2021), Viktoria Zlatinova (2018-2019), Natsuko Sato (2016-2017)

Research assistants in the Neuroscience for Cognitive Control Laboratory:

Lynn Baker (2015-2017), Allison Burton (2017-2019), Jeremy Lee (2020)

Princeton Neuroscience Institute Summer Research Program Students: Elizabeth Tong (2020 - 2021), Connor Lawhead (2019), Chloe Hoeber (2017), Candace Rizzi-Wise (2016)

Princeton University ReMatch+ Summer Program Student: Katie Tam (2018)

Teaching

Assistant in Instruction at Princeton University: 

Course title: Laboratory in Principles in Neuroscience (Spring 2019). Instructor for hands-on labs on fMRI Decoding. Professor: Dr. Kenneth Norman.

Course title: Computational Models of Psychological Function (Spring 2018) Professor: Dr. Jonathan Cohen.

Course title: Cognitive Psychology (Spring 2017). Professor: Dr. Jonathan Cohen.

Guest lectures: 

Introduction to fMRI lecture for Laboratory in Principles of Neuroscience course, at Princeton Neuroscience Institute (Spring 2020).

Introduction to fMRI lecture for Neurotechnologies for Analysis of Neural Dynamics summer course at Princeton Neuroscience Institute (June 2017, June 2018, July 2019).

Teacher for the Prison Teaching Initiative: 

Course title: Introduction to Psychology (Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2018) Taught at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women and the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility, lectures on Neuroscience. Through the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, Princeton University. 

Undergraduate Research Experience

Honors Research Thesis:

Title: Manipulating Inattentional Blindness with tDCS (2014). Mentored by: Dr. Sharon Thompson-Schill and Dr. Sarah Solomon.

Research Assistant:

Mentor: Dr. Jianghong Liu, University of Pennsylvania (2013-2014).

Mentor: Dr. Richard van Emmerik, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Motor Control Lab (2011).

Summer Programs for Undergraduates:

Center of Excellence for Learning in Education Science and Technology (2013) Mentors: Dr. Helen Barbas and Dr. Basilis Zikoplous. 

New York University Center for Neural Science (2012) Mentors: Dr. Marisa Carrasco and Dr. Antoine Barbot.

Conference presentations

den Ouden, H., Bustamante, L. A., Koolschijn, R., Hopper, W., & Bongioanni, A. Deciding how to decide ‑ Neural circuits, computations and psychopathology in cognitive effort allocation. Symposium speaker at the NVP Dutch Society for Brain and Cognition Winter Conference (December, 2023, Egmond aan Zee, NL).

Bustamante, L. A., Bogdanov, M., Solis, J., Oshinowo, T., Sheldon, S., Devine, S., Lee, J. R., Tong, E., Burton, A. R., Grahek, I., Prater Fahey, M., Konova, A., Otto, A. R., Barch, D., Shenhav, A., Cohen, J. D., & Daw, N. D. Quantifying individual differences in cognitive and physical effort cost with the Effort Foraging Task; applications in large online, clinical depression, and transcranial direct stimulation studies. Flash Talk at the Motivation and Cognitive Control Conference (October 2023, Lyon, FR)

Bustamante, L. A., Prater Fahey, M., Solis, J., Oshinowo, T., Lee, J. R., Tong, E., Burton, A. R., Grahek, I., Shenhav, A., Barch, D., Konova, A., Daw, N. D., & Cohen, J. D. Anxiety in major depression associated with increased willingness to exert cognitive, but not physical effort. Poster at the Society for Research in Psychopathology (September 2023, St. Louis, MO).

Bustamante, L. A., Prater Fahey, M., Solis, J., Oshinowo, T., Lee, J. R., Tong, E., Burton, A. R., Grahek, I., Shenhav, A., Barch, D., Konova, A., Daw, N. D., & Cohen, J. D. Anxiety in major depression associated with increased willingness to exert cognitive, but not physical effort. Poster at the Society for Biological Psychiatry Meeting (April 2023, San Diego, CA).

Prater Fahey, M.*, Bustamante, L. A.*, Grahek, I., Solis, J., Oshinowo, T.,  Tong, E., Lee, J.R., Burton, A., Konova, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D., Shenhav, A.. Disentangling the Motivation to Exert Cognitive Control in Depression. Poster at the Society for NeuroEconomics Conference (October 2022, Arlington, VA).

Bogdanov, M., Bustamante, L. A., Sheldon, S., & Otto, A. R. Effects of frontopolar brain stimulation on the adjustment of mental effort expenditure to the average reward rate of the environment. Poster at the Third Workshop on Mental Effort (October, 2022, Providence, RI).

Ham, H., Grahek, I., Bustamante, L. A., Daw, N. D., Kaplin, A., & Musslick, S. Leveraging psychometrics of rational inattention to estimate individual differences in the capacity for cognitive control. Poster at the Third Workshop on Mental Effort (October, 2022, Providence, RI).

Bustamante, L.A., Oshinowo, T.,  Lee, J.R., Tong, E., Burton, A., Shenhav, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D. (2022). Quantifying motivation for cognitive and physical effort using patch foraging. Invited talk at the Controlled Processes Meeting (May 2022, Virtual).

Bustamante, L.A. (2021). Tutorial on Individual Differences in STAN and R. Invited tutorial for the 2nd virtual Workshop on Mental Effort. Tutorial materials: https://github.com/laurabustamante/individual_differences_analysis_stan

Musslick, S.M., Wirzberger, M., Grahek, I., Bustamante, L.A., Shenhav, A., Cohen, J.D. (2020). Mental effort: One construct, many faces? Psychological Science 28, 1321-1333. https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/cogsci20a-W1-doc.pdf

Bustamante, L.A., Burton, A., Oshinowo, T., Shenhav, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D. (2020). Quantifying the cost of cognitive control using a patch foraging task. Poster at the Mental Effort Workshop of the 42nd Annual Virtual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (July 2019, Virtual).

Bustamante, L.A., Burton, A., Shenhav, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D. (2019). Evidence for a cost of cognitive control effect on foraging behavior. Poster at the 7th International Symposium on Motivational and Cognitive Control (October 2019, Berlin, Germany).

Bustamante, L.A., Burton, A., Shenhav, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D. (2019). Evidence for a

cost of cognitive control effect on foraging behavior. Poster presented at the 4th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (July 2019, Montreal, Canada).

Bustamante, L.A., Burton, A., Baker, A., Shenhav, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D. (2018). The

cost of cognitive control and the balance of random versus directed exploration. Poster presented

at the 48th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (November 2018, San Diego, CA).

Bustamante, L.A., Burton, A., Baker, A., Shenhav, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D. (2018). The cost of cognitive control and the balance of random versus directed exploration. Poster presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroeconomics (October 2018, Philadelphia, PA).

Bustamante, L.*, Lieder, F.*, Musslick S., Shenhav, A., and Cohen, J.D. (2018). Learning to

overexert cognitive control in the Stroop task. Poster presented at the 2018 Conference on

Cognitive Computational Neuroscience. (September 2018, Philadelphia, PA).

Bustamante, L.A., Burton, A., Baker, A., Hoeber, C., Shenhav, A., Daw, N.D., and Cohen, J.D.

(2018). Novel methods for measuring the cost of cognitive control in a patch foraging task and a

demand selection task with Stroop. Poster presented at the 40th annual meeting of the Cognitive

Science Society (July 2018, Madison, WI).

Bustamante, L.*, Lieder, F.*, Musslick S., Shenhav, A., and Cohen, J. (2017). Learning to (mis)allocate control: maltransfer can lead to self-control failure. Invited talk at the Self-Control and Decision Making Nanosymposium at the 47th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (November 2017, Washington, DC).

Musslick S., Jang J. S., Panichello M., Bustamante L., Shenhav A., Cohen J. D. (2017). Constraints associated with cognitive control and the stability-flexibility dilemma. Invited talk at the Self-Control and Decision Making Nanosymposium at the 47th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (November 2017, Washington, DC).

Bustamante, L.*, Lieder, F.*, Musslick S., Shenhav, A., and Cohen, J. (2017). Learning to (mis)allocate control: maltransfer can lead to self-control failure. Poster presented at the 3rd Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making at the University of Michigan (June 2017, Ann Arbor, MI).

Bustamante, L. Zikopoulous, B., Barbas, H. (2013) Characterizing thalamic projections to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Oral presentation at the 21st Annual McNair Scholars Research Conference at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (September 2013, Baltimore, Maryland).

Barbot, A., Bustamante, L., Carrasco, M. (2013). Diverting attention impairs or improves performance by decreasing resolution. Oral presentation at the 36th Annual European Conference on Visual Perception (August 2013, Bremen, Germany).

Barbot, A., Bustamante, L., Carrasco, M. (2013). When diverting attention improves performance: Attention trades off spatial resolution. Poster presented at the 13th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (May 2013, Naples, Florida).

* Indicates equal author contribution. 

Invited talks

“Quantifying individual differences in cognitive and physical effort cost with the Effort Foraging Task; applications in large online, clinical depression, and transcranial direct stimulation studies” (November, 2023), Clinical Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Group, University of Groningen.

“Quantifying individual differences in cognitive and physical effort cost with the Effort Foraging Task; applications in large online, clinical depression, and transcranial direct stimulation studies” (November, 2023), Neuroscience and Mental Health Group, University College London.

“Quantifying individual differences in cognitive and physical effort cost with the Effort Foraging Task; applications in large online, clinical depression, and transcranial direct stimulation studies” (June, 2023),  Artificial Intelligence Colloquium, University of Groningen. 

“Quantifying individual differences in cognitive and physical effort cost with the Effort Foraging Task; applications in large online, clinical depression, and transcranial direct stimulation studies” (June, 2023),  Motivation Brain Behavior Lab, Institut du Cerveau, Sorbonne University.

“Motivation for cognitive and physical effort in depression” (January, 2023), Motivation & Cognitive Control Lab, Radboud University.

“Quantifying individual differences in the cost of cognitive and physical effort in humans” (January, 2023), Learning & Decision-making Lab, Radboud University.

“Quantifying individual differences in the cost of cognitive and physical effort in humans” (September, 2022), Control and Decision Making Lab, Washington University in St. Louis. 

“Quantifying individual differences in the cost of cognitive and physical effort in humans” (September, 2022), Behavior, Brain, Cognition Colloquium, Washington University in St. Louis.

"Quantifying motivation for cognitive and physical effort using patch foraging” (May, 2022), Controlled Processes Meeting, Virtual. 

“Using a patch foraging task to quantify costs associated with cognitive and physical effort” (May 2021), Princeton Neuroscience Institute Seminar Series.

“Motivation for cognitive and physical effort in depression” (December 2021), Rutgers-Princeton Center for Computational Neuropsychiatry, Piscataway, NJ.

"Measuring the cost of cognitive control" (July, 2020), Gillan Lab, Trinity College Dublin. 

"Measuring the cost of cognitive control" (March 2020), Cognitive Control & Psychopathology Lab, Washington University in St. Louis, MO.  

"Measuring the cost of cognitive control" (September 2019), Hartley Lab, New York University, New York, NY.

"Motivation for cognitive and physical effort in depression" (June 2019), Max Planck Center for Computational Psychiatry, University College London.

“Learning to overexert cognitive control in the Stroop task” (May 2018), Princeton Neuroscience Institute Retreat.

"The cost of cognitive control and the balance of random and directed exploration" (June 2019), invited by Dr. Stefano Palminteri of the Human Reinforcement Learning Lab, École Normale Supérieure, Paris. 

 "The cost of cognitive control and the balance of random and directed exploration" (June 2019), Invited by Dr. Sebastien Bouret of the Motivation Brain Behavior Lab, Institut du Cerveau, Sorbonne University, Paris.

“Indexing the cost of cognitive control in a patch foraging task” (December, 2017), Aston-Jones Lab, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.

“Indexing the cost of cognitive control in a patch foraging task” (November, 2017), Shenhav Lab, Brown University, Providence, RI.

“Decision Making in Cognitive Control” (May, 2016), Gabrieli Lab, Massachusetts Institute

of Technology Cambridge, MA.