Which cognitive tools do we prefer to use, and is that preference rational?

This work aims to address the issue of which kind of cognitive tools we prefer, and whether this preference is rational. To do so, we proposed three experiments in which participants had to play the game Guess Who? by choosing between three tools that assisted them in three distinct cognitive functions (Working memory vs. Selective visual attention vs. Decision-making). In Experiment 3, additional tasks were proposed to assess participants' performance and meta-representations in working memory, selective visual attention and decision-making. Our findings indicate that participants preferred to use a cognitive tool assisting working memory over selective visual attention and decision-making. The meta-representation of participants' performance influenced the decision to use one cognitive tool over the others much more than individual performance itself. These results suggest that a search for effectiveness rather than efficiency, as well as the meta-representations of cognitive performance might be two key predictors of people's preference toward a cognitive tool.