DDRIG in DRMS: Rational and Heuristic Search

这个项目探讨了当有很多选择可供选择时，人们如何在搜索有价值的结果(如产品、服务或工作)时决定去哪里寻找。一个例子是消费者在预订机票时如何访问旅游网站。这个项目有助于解释一个人访问旅游网站的顺序，这是基于他们期望找到的东西。在一系列在线实验中，人们被给予与他们在网上购物时可能面临的选择相同的选择，他们关于位置搜索和选择的数据被记录下来。参与者的行为是通过描述他们用来做出这些决策的典型决策策略来总结的。这些决策策略将与最优的数学和经济模型进行比较，以找出低效和错误。描述性的行为发现和最优分析结合在一起，提出了改进在线搜索的建议和创新。这项研究有可能增进公众对网上购物和搜索行为的理解。它可以帮助政府机构、非营利组织和公司改进其网站的设计，帮助用户找到他们正在寻找的东西。它还可以通过突出阻碍有效搜索的常见不良搜索习惯来帮助消费者在线搜索商品。最后，虽然这项研究侧重于消费者搜索，但人们搜索许多其他东西，如工作、机会和服务，研究结果也适用于这些其他情况。该项目探索了人们如何在由搜索成本和对不同地点的结果的不同期望定义的环境中，顺序地搜索最佳结果。这项研究的目标是了解人们根据搜索成本和他们的期望(即导航)来决定在哪里寻找好结果的策略。研究将观察到的战略与标准的航行经济模型进行比较。这一建议的独特之处在于：(A)使用受控实验检验顺序搜索中的导航行为；(B)将导航行为与一个有影响力的最优搜索模型(Weitzman，1979)的预测进行比较；(C)检查人们在搜索中导航时使用的认知策略；(D)开发一种新的实验方法，允许将导航行为与标准模型的预测进行比较，并确定简化启发式方法；和(E)使用基于代理的模型来理解搜索启发式的适应性本质。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project explores how people decide where to look when searching for valued outcomes (like products, services, or jobs) when many options are available. One example is how consumers visit travel websites when booking flights. This project helps explain the order in which a person would visit travel websites based on what they expect to find. In a series of online experiments, people are given choices like those they might face when shopping online, and their data about location search and choices are recorded. Participants’ behavior is summarized by describing the typical decision strategies that they use to make these decisions. These decision strategies are compared against optimal mathematical and economic models to identify inefficiencies and errors. Together the descriptive behavioral findings and the optimal analysis combine to make recommendations and innovations to improve online search. This research has the potential to enhance public understanding of online shopping and search behaviors. It can help government agencies, non-profit organizations, and corporations improve the design of their websites to help users find what they are looking for. It can also help consumers search for items online by highlighting common bad search habits that hinder effective searching. Finally, while this research focuses on consumer search, people search for many other things, jobs, opportunities, and services and the findings can be applied to these other situations as well.This project explores how people navigate as they search sequentially for the best outcomes in an environment defined by search costs and differing expectations for outcomes at different locations. The goal of this research is to understand the strategies that people use to decide where to look for good outcomes based on search costs and their expectations (i.e., navigation). Studies compare observed strategies to normative economic models of navigation. This proposal is distinctive because it: (A) examines navigation behavior in the context of sequential search using controlled experiments; (B) compares navigation behaviors against the predictions of an influential optimal search model (Weitzman, 1979); (C) examines cognitive strategies used by people as they navigate in search; (D) develops a novel experimental method that allows comparing navigation behaviors to predictions from normative models and to identify simplifying heuristics; and (E) utilizes agent-based models to understand the adaptive nature of search heuristics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.