Assessing the empirical validity of the "Take-The-Best' heuristic as a model of human probabilistic inference

The boundedly rational "Take-The-Best" heuristic (TTB) was proposed by G. G igerenzer, U. Hoffrage, and H. Kleinbolting (1991) as a model of East and f rugal probabilistic inferences. Although the simple lexicographic rule prov ed to be successful in computer simulations, direct empirical demonstration s of its adequacy as a psychological model are lacking because of several m ethodical problems. In 4 experiments with a total of 210 participants, this question was addressed. Whereas Experiment 1 showed that TTB is not valid as a universal hypothesis about probabilistic inferences, up to 28% of part icipants in Experiment 2 and 53% of participants in Experiment 3 were class ified as TTB users. Experiment 4 revealed that investment costs for informa tion seem to be a relevant factor leading participants to switch to a nonco mpensatory TTB strategy. The observed individual differences in strategy us e imply the recommendation of an idiographic approach to decision-making re search.