A bumblebee pauses mid-flight before a sunlit gladiolus, poised between the promise of this bloom and the potential of the next. Credit: James Johnstone.

Humans and other animals are constantly required to make decisions under uncertain conditions or while in rapidly changing environments. Past psychology and biology studies showed that some decision-making strategies can be more effective than others in specific circumstances.

Researchers at University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Houston, and University of Pennsylvania carried out a study aimed at better understanding why animals might use certain decision-making strategies when searching for food under uncertain conditions.

Their paper, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface , suggests that information-seeking strategies are more reliable than reward-seeking ones in this context, as they deliver more predictable outcomes while reducing risk.

"One of the central questions motivating this work is: why do people and animals…