Data from: Search as a simple take-the-best heuristic

Humans commonly engage in a variety of search behaviours, for example when
looking for an object, a partner, information, or a solution to a complex
problem. The success or failure of a search strategy crucially depends on
the structure of the environment and the constraints it imposes on the
individuals. Here we focus on environments in which individuals have to
explore the solution space gradually and where their reward is determined
by one unique solution they choose to exploit. This type of environment
has been relatively overlooked in the past despite being relevant to
numerous real-life situations, such as spatial search and various
problem-solving tasks. By means of a dedicated experimental design, we
show that the search behaviour of experimental participants can be well
described by a simple heuristic model. Both in rich and poor solution
spaces, a take-the-best procedure that ignores all but one cue at a time
is capable of reproducing a diversity of observed behavioural patterns.
Our approach, therefore, sheds lights on the possible cognitive mechanisms
involved in human search.