Decision Making Under Uncertainty with Information Overload

Abstract

Information overload is a growing concern in manufacturing environments where operators must make rapid decisions under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and escalating task demands. This study investigated how progressively degraded instructions and increasing informational load affect cognitive performance and physiological stress during a simulated assembly task. Ten participants completed a 49-step digital LEGO assembly set while exposed to progressive decreases in instruction clarity and escalating background noise. Cognitive performance was assessed through completion percentage, accuracy scores, and task speed, while physiological stress was evaluated using the electrodermal activity (EDA), recorded with a multimodal wearable device, EmpaticaPlus. Results showed that greater task completion and faster assembly speed were associated with a clear decline in accuracy, indicating a trade-off between productivity and quality as informational load increased. Physiologically, EDA rose steadily throughout the task (i.e. doubling from baseline by the final interval) and higher peak EDA values were lightly associated with higher error rates. Collectively, the cognitive and physiological findings indicate that increasing information load heightens stress and degrades decision-making performance. This study contributes to the understanding of real-time information overload in fast-paced, task-driven environments and highlights the value of physiological monitoring for assessing cognitive burden. Future work should employ larger sample sizes and develop weighted composite stress indices incorporating heart rate variability, EDA, and skin temperature to more comprehensively quantify operator stress under dynamic information conditions.

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