Wanja Wolff
@wanjawolff.bsky.social
Professor for Sport Psychology at the University of Hamburg. Researching the Dynamics of Human Performance Regulation (@dhprlab.bsky.social) and planning to use that knowledge to stop getting worse at cycling.
Pinned
Wanja Wolff
@wanjawolff.bsky.social
· Oct 13
OSF
osf.io
#preprint 📢
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
📢 New paper 🤩
w/ @katjarewitz.bsky.social & @corimartarelli.bsky.social, we used Bayesian network analyses to study the relationship between exercise boredom, effort value & self-reported exercise behavior.
TL;DR: high boredom & low value -> less exercise
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
w/ @katjarewitz.bsky.social & @corimartarelli.bsky.social, we used Bayesian network analyses to study the relationship between exercise boredom, effort value & self-reported exercise behavior.
TL;DR: high boredom & low value -> less exercise
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
An analysis of the associations between boredom, effort value, and exercise behavior
Insufficient physical activity poses significant health risks, making it essential to understand psychological aspects influencing exercise engagement…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:47 AM
📢 New paper 🤩
w/ @katjarewitz.bsky.social & @corimartarelli.bsky.social, we used Bayesian network analyses to study the relationship between exercise boredom, effort value & self-reported exercise behavior.
TL;DR: high boredom & low value -> less exercise
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
w/ @katjarewitz.bsky.social & @corimartarelli.bsky.social, we used Bayesian network analyses to study the relationship between exercise boredom, effort value & self-reported exercise behavior.
TL;DR: high boredom & low value -> less exercise
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
Was geht an der Universität Hamburg? 🤳Ab sofort findet ihr bei Bluesky das UHH-Startpaket. Hier bündeln wir für euch die Profile von Forschenden und Einrichtungen der Uni Hamburg. Ihr seid noch nicht dabei? Kommentiert oder schreibt uns eine DM! 💬
October 8, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Was geht an der Universität Hamburg? 🤳Ab sofort findet ihr bei Bluesky das UHH-Startpaket. Hier bündeln wir für euch die Profile von Forschenden und Einrichtungen der Uni Hamburg. Ihr seid noch nicht dabei? Kommentiert oder schreibt uns eine DM! 💬
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
The Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Science of Motivation has opened nominations for the editorship of Motivation Science, a multidisciplinary journal that publishes significant contributions to the study of motivation.
November 6, 2025 at 12:51 AM
The Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Science of Motivation has opened nominations for the editorship of Motivation Science, a multidisciplinary journal that publishes significant contributions to the study of motivation.
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
New Stage 2 Recommendation @pci-regreports.bsky.social:
🧠Unmasking the effort of boredom🧠
Radtke, Wolff, & Martarelli (2025) tested whether subjective effort attributed to boredom is differentially linked to pupil size than effort attributed to difficulty.
Find out more: doi.org/10.24072/pci...
🧠Unmasking the effort of boredom🧠
Radtke, Wolff, & Martarelli (2025) tested whether subjective effort attributed to boredom is differentially linked to pupil size than effort attributed to difficulty.
Find out more: doi.org/10.24072/pci...
Unmasking the effort of boredom: A deeper look into self-control...
doi.org
October 28, 2025 at 10:46 AM
New Stage 2 Recommendation @pci-regreports.bsky.social:
🧠Unmasking the effort of boredom🧠
Radtke, Wolff, & Martarelli (2025) tested whether subjective effort attributed to boredom is differentially linked to pupil size than effort attributed to difficulty.
Find out more: doi.org/10.24072/pci...
🧠Unmasking the effort of boredom🧠
Radtke, Wolff, & Martarelli (2025) tested whether subjective effort attributed to boredom is differentially linked to pupil size than effort attributed to difficulty.
Find out more: doi.org/10.24072/pci...
Very cool to see this one out now in Physiology & Behavior 🤩
- We tracked boredom-related & diffculty-related effort dynamics & assessed how they covary with changes in electrodermal activity
Led by Vanessa Radtke & w/ @corimartarelli.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- We tracked boredom-related & diffculty-related effort dynamics & assessed how they covary with changes in electrodermal activity
Led by Vanessa Radtke & w/ @corimartarelli.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Task-related effort - distinguishing boredom- and difficulty-related effort via electrodermal activity
Exerting effort is central to human performance, with the sources of effort varying across tasks. While traditionally linked to task difficulty, effor…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Very cool to see this one out now in Physiology & Behavior 🤩
- We tracked boredom-related & diffculty-related effort dynamics & assessed how they covary with changes in electrodermal activity
Led by Vanessa Radtke & w/ @corimartarelli.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- We tracked boredom-related & diffculty-related effort dynamics & assessed how they covary with changes in electrodermal activity
Led by Vanessa Radtke & w/ @corimartarelli.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
Truly enjoyed this talk held by Dr. Johannes Seiler 🎉
Interesting to discuss boredom as a signal that feels aversive but also secures us from stagnation 🙌🏼
Thanks for taking your time 👍🏼
Interesting to discuss boredom as a signal that feels aversive but also secures us from stagnation 🙌🏼
Thanks for taking your time 👍🏼
Great pleasure to host Dr. Johannes Seiler in our #DHPRLab meeting!
He gave a fascinating talk on how boredom drives exploration and information-seeking, and how neural entropy underlies this process across species.
Thank you for sharing your time and insights 🙏
He gave a fascinating talk on how boredom drives exploration and information-seeking, and how neural entropy underlies this process across species.
Thank you for sharing your time and insights 🙏
October 29, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Truly enjoyed this talk held by Dr. Johannes Seiler 🎉
Interesting to discuss boredom as a signal that feels aversive but also secures us from stagnation 🙌🏼
Thanks for taking your time 👍🏼
Interesting to discuss boredom as a signal that feels aversive but also secures us from stagnation 🙌🏼
Thanks for taking your time 👍🏼
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
Great pleasure to host Dr. Johannes Seiler in our #DHPRLab meeting!
He gave a fascinating talk on how boredom drives exploration and information-seeking, and how neural entropy underlies this process across species.
Thank you for sharing your time and insights 🙏
He gave a fascinating talk on how boredom drives exploration and information-seeking, and how neural entropy underlies this process across species.
Thank you for sharing your time and insights 🙏
October 29, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Great pleasure to host Dr. Johannes Seiler in our #DHPRLab meeting!
He gave a fascinating talk on how boredom drives exploration and information-seeking, and how neural entropy underlies this process across species.
Thank you for sharing your time and insights 🙏
He gave a fascinating talk on how boredom drives exploration and information-seeking, and how neural entropy underlies this process across species.
Thank you for sharing your time and insights 🙏
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
This week we had another awesome guest in our #DHPRLab meeting:
Prof. Dr. Erin Gerlach told us about the empirical educational research perspective and how it connects to practice through inspiring projects.
Thank you for taking the time! 🙏
Prof. Dr. Erin Gerlach told us about the empirical educational research perspective and how it connects to practice through inspiring projects.
Thank you for taking the time! 🙏
October 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM
This week we had another awesome guest in our #DHPRLab meeting:
Prof. Dr. Erin Gerlach told us about the empirical educational research perspective and how it connects to practice through inspiring projects.
Thank you for taking the time! 🙏
Prof. Dr. Erin Gerlach told us about the empirical educational research perspective and how it connects to practice through inspiring projects.
Thank you for taking the time! 🙏
🚨Job Alert🚨
2 unbefristete Stellen (je 75%, E13) bei uns am Institut für Bewegungswissenschaften
- Fokus: Insb. Sozialwissenschaften des Sports/Sportsoziologie & qualitative Methoden
Über Verbreitung freue ich mich sehr, Rückfragen gern per DM an mich 🙏
👉 www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb...
2 unbefristete Stellen (je 75%, E13) bei uns am Institut für Bewegungswissenschaften
- Fokus: Insb. Sozialwissenschaften des Sports/Sportsoziologie & qualitative Methoden
Über Verbreitung freue ich mich sehr, Rückfragen gern per DM an mich 🙏
👉 www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb...
Ausschreibung
www.uni-hamburg.de
October 24, 2025 at 7:33 AM
🚨Job Alert🚨
2 unbefristete Stellen (je 75%, E13) bei uns am Institut für Bewegungswissenschaften
- Fokus: Insb. Sozialwissenschaften des Sports/Sportsoziologie & qualitative Methoden
Über Verbreitung freue ich mich sehr, Rückfragen gern per DM an mich 🙏
👉 www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb...
2 unbefristete Stellen (je 75%, E13) bei uns am Institut für Bewegungswissenschaften
- Fokus: Insb. Sozialwissenschaften des Sports/Sportsoziologie & qualitative Methoden
Über Verbreitung freue ich mich sehr, Rückfragen gern per DM an mich 🙏
👉 www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb...
📺 In the German primetime TV show JENKE Experiment, participants endured three hours of boredom - with a few theory-driven curveballs 😁
A vivid reminder that doing “nothing” can be tough & that boredom really matters.
Very excited to have contributed to this project.
www.joyn.de/bts/serien/j...
A vivid reminder that doing “nothing” can be tough & that boredom really matters.
Very excited to have contributed to this project.
www.joyn.de/bts/serien/j...
Jenkes neues Selbst-Experiment: Würdest du drei Stunden quälende Langeweile überstehen?
Was passiert, wenn die ständige Reizüberflutung durch das Smartphone wegfällt? Jenke von Wilmsdorff und Kameramann Jan haben genau das in einem radikalen Selbst-Experiment ausprobiert: Drei Stunden ab...
www.joyn.de
October 22, 2025 at 11:21 AM
📺 In the German primetime TV show JENKE Experiment, participants endured three hours of boredom - with a few theory-driven curveballs 😁
A vivid reminder that doing “nothing” can be tough & that boredom really matters.
Very excited to have contributed to this project.
www.joyn.de/bts/serien/j...
A vivid reminder that doing “nothing” can be tough & that boredom really matters.
Very excited to have contributed to this project.
www.joyn.de/bts/serien/j...
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
Thrilled to share our new preprint highlighting distinct neurocomputational mechanisms underlying how reward and punishment determine adaptive cognitive control - a massive fMRI study and collaborative team effort with the @shenhavlab.bsky.social 🧠
Link here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Link here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying the distinct motivational influences of reward and punishment on cognitive control
Human motivation is fundamentally shaped by one's expectations of the reward they could earn for good performance or the punishment they would avoid for poor performance. However, the extent to which ...
www.biorxiv.org
October 20, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Thrilled to share our new preprint highlighting distinct neurocomputational mechanisms underlying how reward and punishment determine adaptive cognitive control - a massive fMRI study and collaborative team effort with the @shenhavlab.bsky.social 🧠
Link here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Link here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
October 15, 2025 at 12:22 PM
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
📰 Mit Anne Paulsen von @spiegel.de habe ich über unser @dhprlab.bsky.social, unsere verschiedenen Messmethoden & insbesondere unsere aktuelle #Forschung zu #Langeweile im #Sport gesprochen.
Vielleicht sind ja ein paar hilfreiche Tipps dabei 😁 ⬇️
www.spiegel.de/fitness/fitn...
Vielleicht sind ja ein paar hilfreiche Tipps dabei 😁 ⬇️
www.spiegel.de/fitness/fitn...
(S+) Radeln und Joggen finden Sie öde? Das hilft gegen Langeweile beim Sport
Kilometersammeln zu Fuß oder per Rad, Hantelwuchten, Kachelzählen beim Schwimmen – das kann zäh und öde sein. Sportpsychologe Wanja Wolff sagt dagegen: Langeweile kann zum Motivationsboost für Hobbysp...
www.spiegel.de
October 16, 2025 at 5:36 AM
📰 Mit Anne Paulsen von @spiegel.de habe ich über unser @dhprlab.bsky.social, unsere verschiedenen Messmethoden & insbesondere unsere aktuelle #Forschung zu #Langeweile im #Sport gesprochen.
Vielleicht sind ja ein paar hilfreiche Tipps dabei 😁 ⬇️
www.spiegel.de/fitness/fitn...
Vielleicht sind ja ein paar hilfreiche Tipps dabei 😁 ⬇️
www.spiegel.de/fitness/fitn...
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
📣 #moeffortmoproblems
“Just try harder and the success will follow” does does not always apply.
Check out our latest preprint to learn more about this effort performance (de)coupling across domains and contexts 😎
“Just try harder and the success will follow” does does not always apply.
Check out our latest preprint to learn more about this effort performance (de)coupling across domains and contexts 😎
#preprint 📢
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
OSF
osf.io
October 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
📣 #moeffortmoproblems
“Just try harder and the success will follow” does does not always apply.
Check out our latest preprint to learn more about this effort performance (de)coupling across domains and contexts 😎
“Just try harder and the success will follow” does does not always apply.
Check out our latest preprint to learn more about this effort performance (de)coupling across domains and contexts 😎
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
2-year postdoc in our team, supervised by Laura Fruhen and Tirza van Noorden.
www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
Postdoc Position: Workplace Communication and Employee Wellbeing | Radboud University
Do you want to work as a Postdoc: Workplace Communication and Employee Wellbeing at the Faculty of Social Sciences? Check our vacancy!
www.ru.nl
October 15, 2025 at 7:28 AM
2-year postdoc in our team, supervised by Laura Fruhen and Tirza van Noorden.
www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
The two main hubs in the brain for the processing of human time perception have been identified: SMA and Insula. Here Alice Teghil from Sapienza Università di Roma and I provide the conceptual background in our review on 'How the body and brain process time'. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
How the body and brain process time
Recent evidence from two independent meta-analyses reveals that subjective time is processed in the insular cortex alongside the supplementary motor a…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 14, 2025 at 8:23 AM
The two main hubs in the brain for the processing of human time perception have been identified: SMA and Insula. Here Alice Teghil from Sapienza Università di Roma and I provide the conceptual background in our review on 'How the body and brain process time'. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#preprint 📢
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
OSF
osf.io
October 13, 2025 at 1:26 PM
#preprint 📢
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
Effort usually boosts performance - but not always. We discuss 4 domain-general factors that modulate effort-performance (de)coupling: osf.io/preprints/ps...
TL;DR: A framework on when and why effort-performance links appear to change across domains, timescales & measures.
🧵
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
A Hitchhiker's guide to physical and cognitive effort: https://osf.io/gm7zf
October 11, 2025 at 5:13 AM
A Hitchhiker's guide to physical and cognitive effort: https://osf.io/gm7zf
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
When effort fails: Instances and reasons for effort-performance decoupling: https://osf.io/3uces
October 11, 2025 at 6:19 AM
When effort fails: Instances and reasons for effort-performance decoupling: https://osf.io/3uces
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
Exciting milestone, my first PhD preprint is out! 🎉
Together w/ @israelhalperin.bsky.social & @wanjawolff.bsky.social, we put together A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Effort 🪐
If you’ve ever asked “what is effort, and how to measure it?”, this one's for you 😎
🚀 read it here:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Together w/ @israelhalperin.bsky.social & @wanjawolff.bsky.social, we put together A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Effort 🪐
If you’ve ever asked “what is effort, and how to measure it?”, this one's for you 😎
🚀 read it here:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
October 10, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Effort research is booming & it’s tough to keep up with how it's defined and measured.
Huge kudos to @dhprlab.bsky.social PhD student @lukas-hack.bsky.social for leading our attempt to create an impartial overview & starter guide. Great effort (pun intended 😉)!
Interested? Check it out ⬇️
Huge kudos to @dhprlab.bsky.social PhD student @lukas-hack.bsky.social for leading our attempt to create an impartial overview & starter guide. Great effort (pun intended 😉)!
Interested? Check it out ⬇️
Exciting milestone, my first PhD preprint is out! 🎉
Together w/ @israelhalperin.bsky.social & @wanjawolff.bsky.social, we put together A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Effort 🪐
If you’ve ever asked “what is effort, and how to measure it?”, this one's for you 😎
🚀 read it here:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Together w/ @israelhalperin.bsky.social & @wanjawolff.bsky.social, we put together A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Effort 🪐
If you’ve ever asked “what is effort, and how to measure it?”, this one's for you 😎
🚀 read it here:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
October 10, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Effort research is booming & it’s tough to keep up with how it's defined and measured.
Huge kudos to @dhprlab.bsky.social PhD student @lukas-hack.bsky.social for leading our attempt to create an impartial overview & starter guide. Great effort (pun intended 😉)!
Interested? Check it out ⬇️
Huge kudos to @dhprlab.bsky.social PhD student @lukas-hack.bsky.social for leading our attempt to create an impartial overview & starter guide. Great effort (pun intended 😉)!
Interested? Check it out ⬇️
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
📢Preprint
Excited to share our new work on a three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions in sport & exercise.
To assess them, we developed the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Sport & Exercise (AEQ-SE).
Curious?⬇️
osf.io/mc6wj_v1
w/ T Götz, R Pekrun, J Schüler & @wanjawolff.bsky.social
Excited to share our new work on a three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions in sport & exercise.
To assess them, we developed the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Sport & Exercise (AEQ-SE).
Curious?⬇️
osf.io/mc6wj_v1
w/ T Götz, R Pekrun, J Schüler & @wanjawolff.bsky.social
October 1, 2025 at 3:01 PM
📢Preprint
Excited to share our new work on a three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions in sport & exercise.
To assess them, we developed the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Sport & Exercise (AEQ-SE).
Curious?⬇️
osf.io/mc6wj_v1
w/ T Götz, R Pekrun, J Schüler & @wanjawolff.bsky.social
Excited to share our new work on a three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions in sport & exercise.
To assess them, we developed the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Sport & Exercise (AEQ-SE).
Curious?⬇️
osf.io/mc6wj_v1
w/ T Götz, R Pekrun, J Schüler & @wanjawolff.bsky.social
We should do this more often 🤩
Our team held yesterday’s lab meeting at Travemünde beach, enjoying the Baltic Sea and Hamburg’s maritime spirit as the ‘Gateway to the World.’ 🌊
October 1, 2025 at 8:12 AM
We should do this more often 🤩
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
Super proud of this collaboration with rockstar Ryan Raut - born out of playing in the sandbox in our last year of grad school! Multi-scale brain activity can be predicted from a simple measure of arousal like pupil diameter. Out with linear causality, in with dynamic systems to explain neurobiology
Arousal as a universal embedding for spatiotemporal brain dynamics - Nature
Reframing of arousal as a latent dynamical system can reconstruct multidimensional measurements of large-scale spatiotemporal brain dynamics on the timescale of seconds in mice.
www.nature.com
September 24, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Super proud of this collaboration with rockstar Ryan Raut - born out of playing in the sandbox in our last year of grad school! Multi-scale brain activity can be predicted from a simple measure of arousal like pupil diameter. Out with linear causality, in with dynamic systems to explain neurobiology
Reposted by Wanja Wolff
Tuning Out: Boredom, Mind-Wandering and Flow in Classical Musicians: https://osf.io/vt4h8
September 26, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Tuning Out: Boredom, Mind-Wandering and Flow in Classical Musicians: https://osf.io/vt4h8