Hick's law facts for kids

Hick's law, also called the Hick–Hyman law, is a cool idea in psychology that helps us understand how people make choices. It's named after two smart psychologists, William Edmund Hick from Britain and Ray Hyman from America.

This law explains that the more choices you have, the longer it takes you to make a decision. Think about it: if you only have two ice cream flavors to pick from, it's quick. But if there are 31 flavors, it takes much longer to decide!

The interesting part is that the time it takes doesn't just go up a little bit for each new choice. It goes up in a special way called logarithmically. This means that as the number of choices gets really big, the extra time needed for each new choice gets smaller. The speed at which your brain processes these choices is sometimes called the rate of gain of information.

How Does Hick's Law Work?

Imagine you're trying to find a specific app on your phone. If all your apps are just thrown onto the screen randomly, it would take a long time to find the one you want, especially if you have many apps.

But what if your apps are organized alphabetically, or into folders? Then you can quickly narrow down your search. This is similar to how Hick's Law applies to things like computer menus. If a menu is organized (like in alphabetical order), you can find what you're looking for faster, even with many options, because you can use a smart strategy to quickly cut down the choices.

Who Discovered This Law?

William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman were the scientists who studied this idea. They looked at how people react when they have different numbers of choices. Their research showed a clear pattern: more choices mean more thinking time before you pick one.

Where Do We See Hick's Law in Action?

You can see Hick's Law in many everyday situations:

• Choosing from a menu: A restaurant with a huge menu might make it harder for you to pick your meal quickly.
• Shopping online: If an online store offers too many similar products, it can be overwhelming and slow down your decision to buy.
• Designing websites and apps: Designers use Hick's Law to make sure menus and buttons are easy to use. They try to group choices or limit the number of options at one time so you can find what you need quickly. For example, a simple navigation bar with a few main categories is usually better than one with dozens of links.

Understanding Hick's Law helps us design things that are easier and faster for people to use, whether it's a computer program, a website, or even a remote control!

Images for kids

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  Roth's application of Hick's law "Bit" is the unit of log2(n)

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  The sigmoid function remains a better representation than the linear function of the relationship between predictability and reaction time.

In Spanish: Ley de Hick para niños