Comparing Anticipation and Uncertainty-Penalty Accounts of Non-Instrumental Information Seeking

Abstract

Proposed psychological mechanisms generating non-instrumental information seeking in hu- mans can be broadly categorised into two competing accounts: the maximisation of antici- pating rewards versus an aversion to uncertainty. We compare three separate formalisations of these theories on their ability to track the dependency of information seeking behaviour on increasing levels of cue-outcome delay as well as their sensitivity to outcome valence. Across three experiments using a variety of different stimuli, we observe a flat to monotoni- cally increasing pattern of delay dependency and minimal evidence of sensitivity to outcome valence––patterns which are better predicted, qualitatively and quantitatively, by an uncer- tainty aversion information model.