speed–accuracy tradeoff
the tendency, when performing a task, for either speed or accuracy to be sacrificed in order to prioritize the other. In experiments, a researcher may vary the speed–accuracy criterion through instructions, payoffs, and deadlines, such that participants can respond quickly with many errors, slowly with few errors, or anywhere in between. In the area of motor control, Fitts’s law is a specific example of a speed–accuracy tradeoff.