ERIC Number: EJ1339089
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Apr
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1551-6709
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Great Minds Think Alike? Spatial Search Processes Can Be More Idiosyncratic When Guided by More Accurate Information
Król, Michal; Król, Magdalena E.
Cognitive Science, v46 n4 e13132 Apr 2022
Existing research demonstrates that pre-decisional information sampling strategies are often stable within a given person while varying greatly across people. However, it remains largely unknown what drives these individual differences, that is, why in some circumstances we collect information more idiosyncratically. In this brief report, we present a pre-registered online study of spatial search. Using a novel technique that combines machine-learning dimension reduction and sequence alignment algorithms, we quantify the extent to which the shape and temporal properties of a search trajectory are idiosyncratic. We show that this metric increases (trajectories become more idiosyncratic) when a person is better informed about the likely location of the search target, while poorly informed individuals seem more likely to resort to default search routines determined bottom-up by the properties of the search field. This shows that when many people independently attempt to solve a task in a similar way, they are not necessarily "onto something."
Descriptors: Spatial Ability, Information Seeking, Sampling, Decision Making, Individual Differences, Problem Solving, Task Analysis, Data Collection
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/5rtwx
Author Affiliations: N/A