Fishing for the Right Words: Decision Rules for Human Foraging Behavior in Internal Search Tasks

@article{Wilke2009FishingFT,
  title={Fishing for the Right Words: Decision Rules for Human Foraging Behavior in Internal Search Tasks},
  author={Andreas Wilke and John M. C. Hutchinson and Peter M. Todd and Uwe Czienskowski},
  journal={Cognitive science},
  year={2009},
  volume={33 3},
  pages={
          497-529
        }
}
Animals depleting one patch of resources must decide when to leave and switch to a fresh patch. Foraging theory has predicted various decision mechanisms; which is best depends on environmental variation in patch quality. Previously we tested whether these mechanisms underlie human decision making when foraging for external resources; here we test whether humans behave similarly in a cognitive task seeking internally generated solutions. Subjects searched for meaningful words made from random… 
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