Ecologically rational strategy selection [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Julian Nicolas Marewski

Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaften und Psychologie der Freien Universität Berlin Ecologically Rational Strategy Selection Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. Phil.) vorgelegt von Dipl. Psych. Julian Nicolas Marewski Datum der Disputation 30.01.2009 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Arthur M. Jacobs Berlin, 2010 Nothing that we have discovered about memory requires us to revise our basic verdict about the complexity or simplicity of human cognition. We can still maintain that, Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity the environment in which we find ourselves … provided that we include in what we call the human environment the cocoon of information, stored in books and in long-term memory, that we spin about ourselves. (Herbert A. Simon, 1996, pp. 109–110.) Acknowledgements This dissertation is the result of research I carried out as a predoctoral research fellow at the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC), located at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Some people are special. Lael Schooler, my main advisor for all these years, is one such person.