The Influence of Previous Strategy Use on Individuals' Subsequent Strategy Choice: Findings from a Numerosity Judgement Task

We conducted two experiments to test whether individuals' strategy choices in a numerosity judgement task are affected by the strategy that was used on the previous trials. Both experiments demonstrated that a previously used strategy indeed influences individuals' strategy choices. Individuals were more inclined to reuse the strategy that they had used on the previous trials. However, this study also demonstrated that this influence is limited to those items that do not have a strong association with a specific strategy. Possible underlying mechanisms for the observed effect are discussed.