My long-term objective is to understand how the human mind deals with cognitive work. I work towards this objective by doing use-inspired basic research. This means that my research agenda is driven primarily by societal challenges, which I attempt to solve by testing and advancing basic theory.
I am fascinated by cognitive work, as the sheer impact of cognitive work on people’s lives can be enormous. To illustrate: A fulltime working career spans approximately 80,000 hours, which is an ocean of time. For many people, especially in future generations, the bulk of this time will be spent on cognitive work.
Over the next ±5 years, I aim to contribute to a better understanding of the subjective costs of cognitive work. Specifically, I aspire to explain where feelings of effort and fatigue come from.