time pressure

n. Time pressure constitutes an experimental technique used to investigate the strategic use of cognitive resources. It is often used in the domains of basic cognition, judgment and decision making, and social cognition.

Asking participants in an experimental setting to perform a task under a stringent deadline has been shown to entail profound implications for basic cognitive and judgmental processes. Time pressure forces individuals to consider relatively few pieces of information to reach a judgment, to use simple heuristics to process information more effectively, and to rely on incomplete information to form a judgment. As a result, time pressure is often used as a technique to study the strategies people employ to balance informational gains and the costs of cognitive effort optimally. These balance processes culminate in specific biases. Such biases may consist of failing to adjust from initial anchors, overestimating the role of salient information in the formation of a judgment, or basing one's judgment on intuitions rather than rational considerations. The effects of time pressure have been depicted as an enhanced need for nonspecific closure, representing a desire for immediate and definite knowledge and aversion to the uncertainties associated with ambiguity. In the area of social cognition, the need for nonspecific closure, often induced by means of time pressure manipulations, has been shown to lead to enhanced reliance on preexisting categories, culminating in stereotypical perception and often decreased tolerance for opinion deviates.

An ongoing debate within the study of cognitive resource limitation concerns the extent to which the manipulation of time pressure fundamentally alters the decisionmaking process. Some have argued that time pressure forces individuals to rely on an intuitive knowledge system based on primitive associative processing, whereas more extensive deliberation can be described in terms of formal logical processes. The notion of dual processes of judgment has been questioned, however. Opponents of the dual process view maintain that time pressure may limit the amount and type of information the individual is able to process, yet it does not necessarily affect the cognitive process itself.

Time pressure can also be considered an occupational and societal phenomenon that constitutes a significant source of stress and hence entails a number of negative psychological and physical consequences. Considerable attention has been paid to this phenomenon. Its dynamic should not be confused with the cognitive understanding of time pressure described. – MD, AK