Research has demonstrated that high levels of pressure can cause individuals' performance on complex tasks to decrease. The goals of the current study were to examine the tradeoff between exploratory and exploitative problem-solving strategies as an explanation of performance maintenance or decline under pressure and to employ a metacognitive intervention as a strategy to mitigate the negative effects of pressure on exploration. The current study included 176 undergraduate participants who completed a resource foraging simulation. Results indicated that exploratory strategies led to greater performance in the complex task condition, but exploitative strategies were superior in the simple task condition. The high pressure condition had minor effects on exploratory behaviors. The metacognitive intervention had strong and positive effects on exploratory behaviors, buffering individuals against the negative effects of pressure on performing complex tasks. Individual difference factors and state-orientations were explored as factors impacting the effects of pressure on exploration. Future research and practical implications are discussed for maintaining or declining performance under pressure.
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