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Abstract

How does time pressure influence exploration and decision-making? We investigate this question using a within-subject design to manipulate decision time (limited vs. unlimited) and use a range of four-armed bandit tasks, designed to independently manipulate uncertainty and expected reward. 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.