Investigation of the effect of reflection triggered by psychological uncertainty in a design project

Abstract

In design projects, perceiving and responding to uncertainty is vital for success. Uncertainty includes objective informational uncertainty and subjective psychological uncertainty. While psychological uncertainty can foster exploration, it is often overlooked in traditional reflection methods. This study introduces a new reflection approach using psychological uncertainty as a trigger and examines its effect on perception and decision-making. A controlled experiment with 27 students tested three conditions: 1) the group used “hedge words” as linguistic cues for psychological uncertainty; 2) the group self-extracted utterances based on felt uncertainty; and 3) a Control group. This study investigated how psychological uncertainty changes through reflection and influences judgment. Results showed that the group that extracted psychological uncertainty effectively maintained an accurate perception of uncertainty and had a higher rate of recognizing the need for discussion. The group that used “hedge words” was better at calibrating perception by reducing excessive doubt, though its narrow focus led to some informational uncertainty being overlooked. When limited to hedge-word utterances, the group that used “hedge words” demonstrated the highest precision in judgment. The reflection method triggered by psychological uncertainty effectively helps practitioners cope with uncertainty. In addition, developing a more accurate extraction approach for psychological uncertainty could lead to more effective reflection.

Keywords: Creativity, Uncertainty, Psychological Uncertainty, Informational Uncertainty, Design Project

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007383