Making a decision based on ease of retrieval of relevant examples from memory (e.g., the "words with K in the first/third position" example). This is an informal approach that can be extremely useful in many situations, but which sometimes produces the wrong answer.

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The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. The ease of retrieving relevant examples from memory, as described, is a hallmark of the availability heuristic. This can lead to biases or errors in judgment if the examples that come to mind are not representative of the actual situation or probability of outcomes.

Making a Decision Based on Ease of Retrieval of Relevant