Can we make a more accurate decision by waiting one second?

Could a slight delay improve the accuracy of our decision making skills? Yes, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have found that accuracy improves by delaying a decision for less than a second. The 50 to 100 milliseconds allows the brain “‘to focus attention on the most relevant information and block out irrelevant distractors,’” as said by author Grinband of CUMC. While making decisions, the brain can receive contradictory sensory information. So a decision becomes more difficult to make if there is added irrelevant information, a distraction. The brain is able to factor out the distractors, however it takes more time in solving a problem and more mistakes can be made. The increase in accuracy occurs when the brain is allowed greater time to collect information and process it, this leads to “speed-accuracy trade-off.” Through their two experiments, based off of viewing dots and response time, they were able to find that it takes 120 ms to switch attention from one stimulus to another. These were able to confirm their results. Decision onset can be in some way under the cognitive control. These studies are helping us understand the basic processes and pathways inside the brain, and it may be beneficial when working with people with ADHD or schizophrenia.

Going alongside this research, Carola Salvi has presented research showing an increase in accuracy of insight solutions due to its all-or-nothing unconscious solving process compared to analytic solutions of conscious premature processing. Through four different laboratory puzzles, that focus on linguistic, visual, and mixed linguistic-verbal problems, Salvi is able to confirm that insight solutions are more accurate than analytic. This is due to insight participants tending to provide the correct answer or time out, however analytic participants had more incorrect answers and less time outs. These results are consistent with the fact that insight is all-or-nothing, while analytic is incremental in problem solving. The results of these studies can help us build a greater understanding of cognitive function and its abnormalities, and also find ways to improve decision-making skills.

Works Cited:

Salvi, C., Bricolo, E., Kounios, J., Bowden, E., & Beeman, M. (2016). Insight solutions are correct more often than analytic solutions. Thinking and Reasoning, 1-18. DOI: 10.1080/13546783.2016.1141798

Teichert, Tobias, Jack Grinband, and Vincent Ferrera. "Ever-So-Slight Delay Improves Decision-Making Accuracy - Columbia University Medical Center." Columbia University Medical Center. N.p., 07 Mar. 2014. Web.