  Subjective expected utility theory assumes that decision-makers possess
unlimited computational resources to reason about their choices; however,
virtually all decisions in everyday life are made under resource constraints -
i.e. decision-makers are bounded in their rationality. Here we experimentally
tested the predictions made by a formalization of bounded rationality based on
ideas from statistical mechanics and information-theory. We systematically
tested human subjects in their ability to solve combinatorial puzzles under
different time limitations. We found that our bounded-rational model accounts
well for the data. The decomposition of the fitted model parameter into the
subjects' expected utility function and resource parameter provide interesting
insight into the subjects' information capacity limits. Our results confirm
that humans gradually fall back on their learned prior choice patterns when
confronted with increasing resource limitations.
