Imagine you and your friends embarking on a thrilling scavenger hunt. While everyone might be aiming for the same treasure, the paths you take to find it can be surprisingly different. Researchers have delved into this puzzle by studying how individuals search for information. In a recent online study, scientists used innovative techniques to analyze spatial search strategies. By examining the shape and timing of participants’ search trajectories, they found that people’s search methods become more unique when they have accurate information about the target’s location. On the other hand, those with less knowledge tend to rely on default search routines dictated by the features of their environment. This study reveals that even though many people approach a task in a similar manner, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re on the right track! To explore this fascinating topic further, check out the full article.

Abstract
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.”

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