Regret, Uncertainty, etc. :

Chris & Uta Frith:

"Many actions are hardly better than leaps in the dark, and we are only too familiar with the experience of regret when we realize that we made the wrong decision (see Frith and Metzinger, 2016). [Regret is not to be confused with disappointment. We feel disappointment when the outcome of a decision is not as good as we expected. We feel regret when we realize that, had we made a different choice, we would have achieved a better outcome.] This experience is explicit, as we are fully aware of it and can talk about it. But what value does it have for us? It always seems to be too late to do anything about it. But is it? Regret might first appear as a shadow in the twilight zone, and you may have to learn to recognize it. It is a shadow that can warn us before we commit to a decision. Once we have learned to heed this signal, we can anticipate the regret that we would feel if it turned out that we made the wrong decision."

Uncertainty:

"We make decisions under uncertainty all the time. Was our last decision a good one? Will anybody tell us? It turns out that we can be guided to make our next decision even without feedback, via signals from the depths (Folke et al., 2016). For example, a feeling of high uncertainty creates low confidence. This feeling makes it very likely that you will change your mind when the same choice is presented again. People who are responsive to these signals are generally more accurate with regard to matching up their subjective uncertainty and their actual behavior. They are also better at knowing which task they should take on when given a choice. They can judge in advance whether they will be able to do the task well (Carlebach and Yeung, 2020).

What is the effect of feeling very uncertain? After making an error, we slow down a little, and are not even aware of it, as in the case of the typists. Slowing down gives us a chance to collect more evidence – that is, alter our speed/accuracy trade-off (van den Berg et al., 2016). In an experiment that involved making a decision between two essentially similar stimuli, the uncertainty was artificially manipulated by presenting variable evidence: that is, the stimuli were of different strengths and reliabilities. In this experiment, the participants tended to seek more information – they asked to see a stimulus again – even when their accuracy was high (Desender, Boldt, and Yeung, 2018).

This finding suggests that it is the subjective feeling of certainty, or confidence, more than the objective level of accuracy, that guides our behavior. Of course, in everyday tasks, the feeling of uncertainty tracks the accuracy of our performance. Hence, it is a good idea to seek more information when we are uncertain. When making difficult decisions, it is a good idea to confer with others when possible. In these cases, we are automatically drawn to taking advice from people who display more confidence."