Bandwidth depletion

Cognitive bandwidth depletion and scarcity mindset are well-studied in laboratory settings, and there is a strong evidence base for how it impacts poor people. Scarcity mindset induced by financial constraints may result in reduced bandwidth to attend to other pressing tasks, leading to trade-off thinking or giving preference to decisions that may have positive benefits for meeting immediate needs, but may result in negative impacts on longer-term well-being. Understanding bandwidth depletion could shed light on mechanisms behind why or how households prioritize certain decisions. Currently, there is limited evidence in non-Western contexts and from studies outside of laboratory settings, as well as a lack of measures that work in these contexts. This tool consists of a self-reported bandwidth scale and a Simon’s circle task. The Simon task is commonly used in cognitive psychology and neuroscience to assess cognitive control and attention. In its visual format (Craft & Small, 1970), it may involve presenting a stimulus (e.g., a red circle or a green circle) and two response buttons (e.g., left and right), and asking participants to follow a set of instructions (e.g., click right button when you see a red circle). The stimulus may appear near both the correct and incorrect response buttons. The Simon effect will indicate the average delay in response for incongruous stimulus-button matches and congruous stimulus-button matches. Other variables that you may want to collect alongside the bandwidth depletion measure include education level, time use, household income, and food security.

Link to: tool content and guidelines, CTO file, and statistical annex

Duration: This tool takes on average 4.13 minutes to be implemented.

Permitted use of the tool: all users are free to use the tool with citation: “MAGNET (2023). Bandwidth Depletion. https://magnet.ifpri.info/bandwidth-depletion/”

Tool sample
Self-reported bandwidth depletion 

Sometimes people feel like they don’t have much space in their head to think about things. Their minds might be occupied with important decisions or stresses in their life. On a scale of 1 to 4, how much space do you feel you have to think about important tasks right now?

1. No space at all
2. A little space
3. Enough space
4. A lot of space

Executive control – Multi-tasking exercise / Simon’s circle task

• A series of tasks that switches the rules halfway through to see if an individual can adjust to the new rules / task. For example, clicking on the right when you see a red circle and clicking on the left when you see a green circle. The circle may appear on either side of the screen.
• Outcome: response time for congruent trials – response time for incongruent trials
• There are multiple open-source options to use. PsyToolkit’s experiment library includes options such as the Simon Task (see circle task describe above), Multi-tasking, and task switching
• The Simon Task is recommended since it is more straightforward for individuals who might not be familiar with this type of exercise.

Measurement Properties

• Geographies Tested: Democratic Republic of the Congo,  Kenya, Nigeria
• Populations included: Female, Male
• Age range: Adults

For details on these testing metrics, visit our scoring methodology page.