Thinking and acting.

In today's class Dr. Rao discussed the different definitions of AI and touched the topic of thinking versus acting. Just to build a context, it was discussed that thinking doesn't help in all situations; there are times when we need to act reflectively rather than think through to the action. There are opposite situations too wherein one should "look before leaping", in nutshell the deliberation problem.

Now humans tend to do both these kinds of actions with pretty much ease and (mostly!) decide the right approach for the right circumstances. This made me wonder whether there was a relation that decided the deliberation time?

Is it that the delay that can be afforded before taking any action, so as not to affect any kind of performance matrix (pre-set or not), that decides in humans which approach should be taken, i.e. a reflexive action or a deliberative? And is it the error in estimating this delay quantity that we relate with the characteristic of hastiness?

By saying performance matrices, I mean to talk about scoring well or save one's own life in respectively an exam or on the middle of a busy road.