Time pressure changes how people explore and respond to uncertainty

How does time pressure influence exploration and decision-making? We investigated this question with several four-armed bandit tasks manipulating (within subjects) expected reward, uncertainty, and time pressure (limited vs. unlimited). With limited time, people have less opportunity to perform cost...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2022-03, Vol.12 (1), p.4122-4122, Article 4122
Main Authors: Wu, Charley M., Schulz, Eric, Pleskac, Timothy J., Speekenbrink, Maarten
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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631/477/2811
Cognitive ability
Decision making
Decision Making - physiology
Exploration
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Learning - physiology
multidisciplinary
Pressure
Reinforcement
Reinforcement, Psychology
Reward
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Uncertainty
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Summary:How does time pressure influence exploration and decision-making? We investigated this question with several four-armed bandit tasks manipulating (within subjects) expected reward, uncertainty, and time pressure (limited vs. unlimited). With limited time, people have less opportunity to perform costly computations, thus shifting the cost-benefit balance of different exploration strategies. Through behavioral, reinforcement learning (RL), reaction time (RT), and evidence accumulation analyses, we show that time pressure changes how people explore and respond to uncertainty. Specifically, participants reduced their uncertainty-directed exploration under time pressure, were less value-directed, and repeated choices more often. Since our analyses relate uncertainty to slower responses and dampened evidence accumulation (i.e., drift rates), this demonstrates a resource-rational shift towards simpler, lower-cost strategies under time pressure. These results shed light on how people adapt their exploration and decision-making strategies to externally imposed cognitive constraints.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-07901-1