Naturalistic decision making

Well kiddo, have you ever had to make a decision without having all the information you needed? Naturalistic decision-making is the process of making choices when you don't have all the answers.

Let's say you are outside playing and you see a big cloud in the sky. You may not know exactly what that cloud means, but based on your past experiences and what you see, you can make a decision whether or not to go inside or stay out and play.

Scientists have studied how people make decisions in situations like this, and they found out that our brains use shortcuts to make choices when we are uncertain. These shortcuts are based on our past experience, knowledge and gut feelings.

Now, these shortcuts can be good or bad. For example, if you're trying to decide what to eat for breakfast and you've always had oatmeal and enjoyed it, you might just automatically choose oatmeal. But if you're trying to make a more important decision, like whether to cross the street or not, these shortcuts might not be enough.

So, naturalistic decision-making is all about using our past experiences and knowledge to make the best decision we can with the information we have. It's like a guessing game, but with your brain trying to make the best guess it can based on what it knows.