Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Classic theories of multi-attribute choice typically assume that preferences are an additive function of attribute values.However recent work (Evers et al.) demonstrates a preference for simplicity that can violate the most basic assumptionsand predictions of conventional models. For example, a set of 7 colored pencils that are all unique colors are preferred overa set of 8 colored pencils with one redundant color. This preferential choice, however, cannot be explained by the utilityof consumption itself. Does this preference emerge as a result of adults substantial experience with such sets in the world(e.g., through shopping or organizing ones possessions), or is this preference present much earlier? Does the preference forsimplicity, in fact, facilitate cognitive encoding? We investigate these questions through a series of experiments conductedwith children in an effort to understand the emergence of this simplicity bias, and its connection to the development ofworking memory.