In the words of Samuli Laato, a researcher at the University of Turku: “Uncertainty always increases cognitive load. And uncertain situations force us to use additional working memory resources. A high cognitive load means that we’re using a lot of our working memory resources.
Cognitive load is the amount of working memory resources we use at one given time. It’s what helps you visualize the route to a new place when you drive and keep several ideas in as you write down a sentence. Working memory is attention’s best buddy. You can think of your working memory as a mental scratch space where you jot down temporary information. Uncertainty also affects our working memory. Put simply, their results suggest that our brain redirects its energy towards resolving uncertainty, at the expense of other cognitive tasks. The underlying biology is still poorly understood, but research in primates conducted by Dr Jacqueline Gottlieb and her team at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute reveals that uncertainty leads to major shifts in brain activity, both at the micro-level of individual cells and at the macro-level of signals sent across the brain. When we feel uncertain about the future, doubt takes over our mind, making it difficult to think about anything else. The sense of threat degrades our ability to focus.
And this heightened state of worry creates conflict in the brain.įirst, uncertainty impacts our attention. To ensure our survival, we become hypervigilant to potential threats. A study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows that uncertainty disrupts many of automatic cognitive processes that govern routine action. Metacognitive strategies can help us think better and manage the anxiety that arises from the unknown. This fear makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, but can be unnecessarily nerve-wracking-and sometimes paralyzing-in our modern world.įortunately, we have also evolved an ability that’s deeply human: metacognition, or thinking about thinking. Unfamiliar spaces and potential blind spots make us uncomfortable. In fact, fear of the unknown has been theorized to be the “one fear to rule them all”-the fear that gives rises to all other fears. The path forward feels more dangerous when we can sense essential gaps in our knowledge. The more we know, the more we can make accurate predictions and shape our future.
The unknown is synonymous with threats that pose risks to our survival. Our brain is wired to reduce uncertainty.
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