Disentangling the Effects of Task Difficulty and Effort on Flow Experience

Optimal experience usually comes from optimal task difficulty. Meanwhile, optimal task difficulty usually comes with the greatest effort exertion. With cumulative evidence showing similarities between the flow experience and effort exertion, it seems that flow may be positively linked with the amount of effort people exert on tasks. This study aims to explore the intricate interplay between task difficulty, effort exertion, and flow experience. Using a visual discrimination task, we manipulated stimulus complexity and target expectancy to induce varying levels of subjective perceived task difficulty and effort exertion. Notably, perceived task difficulty increased proportionally with increasing stimulus complexity. Reaction time indexed effort exertion increased in challenging tasks when participants held a high target expectancy. Consistently, alterations in perceived flow experience mirrored the observed shifts in effort exertion. However, no parallel trend emerged in the measured physiological flow indicator, specifically the P300 amplitude. These findings spotlight the intricate interplay between subjective experiences of task difficulty, exerted effort, and the subjective sense of being in 'flow'.