Institute of Physiology, Focus Program Translational Neurosciences (FTN), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Hanns-Dieter-Hüsch-Weg 19, 55131, Mainz, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Straße 8, 55131, Mainz, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 24;12(1):3162. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06861-w.
Boredom has been defined as an aversive mental state that is induced by the disability to engage in satisfying activity, most often experienced in monotonous environments. However, current understanding of the situational factors inducing boredom and driving subsequent behavior remains incomplete. Here, we introduce a two-alternative forced-choice task coupled with sensory stimulation of different degrees of monotony. We find that human subjects develop a bias in decision-making, avoiding the more monotonous alternative that is correlated with self-reported state boredom. This finding was replicated in independent laboratory and online experiments and proved to be specific for the induction of boredom rather than curiosity. Furthermore, using theoretical modeling we show that the entropy in the sequence of individually experienced stimuli, a measure of information gain, serves as a major determinant to predict choice behavior in the task. With this, we underline the relevance of boredom for driving behavioral responses that ensure a lasting stream of information to the brain.
无聊被定义为一种厌恶的心理状态，是由无法参与到令人满意的活动引起的，这种状态通常发生在单调的环境中。然而，目前对于引起无聊和驱动后续行为的情境因素的理解并不完整。在这里，我们引入了一个双选择强制选择任务，同时对不同程度单调的感官刺激。我们发现，人类受试者在决策中形成了一种偏见，避免了更单调的选择，这与自我报告的状态无聊相关。这一发现得到了独立实验室和在线实验的重复验证，并且被证明是专门针对无聊感的诱导，而不是好奇心的诱导。此外，我们使用理论模型表明，个体经历的刺激序列中的熵，即信息增益的度量，是预测任务中选择行为的主要决定因素。由此，我们强调了无聊在驱动行为反应方面的重要性，这些反应确保了大脑持续获得信息流。
