Transpondster

explore-blog:

The trigger to transition between styles in this dual-process cognition is partially dependent on the sufficiency principle. Generally, when making a decision, we weigh how much we know against how much we need to know to make a confident judgment about a topic. If this gap between what we know and what we need to know is small, heuristic-style thinking is more likely. Conversely, if there is a large gap, we need to expend more mental resources to close it, thus encouraging systematic thinking. This Scrooge-like mental calculus determines how much we process the information we are inundated with everyday. And we readily recognize this game of cognitive economy, especially when browsing the web.

This is Your Brain on the Internet (Maybe).

Also see how our brains are wired for pattern-recognition.

The mark to indicate how much information one needs in order to comment authoritatively about any topic on an Internet site or blog is much closer to the bottom of the y-axis than it is to the top. Sometimes, in fact, it sits below the line marking initially available information.