When it comes to making decisions on the fly, we sacrifice accuracy for speed. It’s true for humans, and it’s true for most other species — rapid fire answers are less likely to be correct. Called the speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT), and while we know it’s a thing, the scientific basis for it has been poorly understood. However, a new paper is claiming to have unlocked how the brain handles this — and it’s turning the traditional model on its head.
The data suggests that when faced with a problem, activity of the prefrontal cortex neurons are amplified when speed is required, and suppressed when accuracy is paramount.
This is contrary to the current theory, which thinks that our brain uses the same processes for all types of decision. The data from this study seems to suggest that our minds deal with information in a different way, depending on what we want of it. Schall said:
What this means is that identical information presented to the brain is analyzed differently under speed stress than under accuracy stress.
Note, the actual research was into monkeys.