Temporal trade-offs in psychophysics

•The simplicity of psychophysical measurements belies underlying behavioral complexity.•This complexity includes rational trade-offs in using time to process information.•Temporal windows on past information govern a change-stability trade-off.•Temporal windows on incoming information govern a speed-accuracy trade-off.•Temporal windows on future expectations and goals govern an explore-exploit trade-off.

Psychophysical techniques typically assume straightforward relationships between manipulations of real-world events, their effects on the brain, and behavioral reports of those effects. However, these relationships can be influenced by many complex, strategic factors that contribute to task performance. Here we discuss several of these factors that share two key features. First, they involve subjects making flexible use of time to process information. Second, this flexibility can reflect the rational regulation of information-processing trade-offs that can play prominent roles in particular temporal epochs: sensitivity to stability versus change for past information, speed versus accuracy for current information, and exploitation versus exploration for future goals. Understanding how subjects manage these trade-offs can be used to help design and interpret psychophysical studies.