Bounded Rationality & Satisficing theory - Rationalité Limitée - Simon H.A, 1956 - theory of decision-making

In 1957, Simon proposed the notion of

Bounded Rationality : that property of an agent that behaves in a manner that is nearly optimal with respect to its goals as its resources will allow.

Bounded rationality better describes agent behaviors than Anderson's optimal rationality approach for the following reasons:

agents are not optimal

the methods by which architectural tasks are performed significantly affect the agents behaviors

the representations of information and the strategies for solving problems must all be discovered by the agent

agents' behaviors across isomorphic task domains are not constant

In considering bounded rationality, Simon suggests that researchers not limit their focus to signature data but look for all the data they can in order to uncover the underlying processes. He concludes by providing a lower bound of relevance to cognitive analysis:

The exact ways in which neurons accomplish their functions is not important- only their functional capabilities and the organization of these.