Intelligence evolved to cope with situations of uncertainty generated by nature, predators, and the behavior of conspecifics. To this end, humans and other animals acquired special abilities, including heuristics that allow for swift action in face of scarce information. In this chapter, I introduce the concept of embodied heuristics, that is, innate or learned rules of thumb that exploit evolved sensory and motor abilities in order to facilitate superior decisions. I provide a case study of the gaze heuristic, which solves coordination problems from intercepting prey to catching a fly ball. Various species have adapted this heuristic to their specific sensorimotor abilities, such as vision, echolocation, running, and flying. Humans have enlisted it for solving tasks beyond its original purpose, a process akin to exaptation. The gaze heuristic also made its way into rocket technology. I propose a systematic study of embodied heuristics as a research framework for situated cognition and embodied bounded rationality.

There are two ways to study how people make decisions. Decision-making under risk deals with well-defined situations where all possible outcomes and their probabilities are known for certain. Examples are playing roulette or buying a lottery ticket. Decision-making under uncertainty, by contrast, deals with ill-defined situations where this certainty is not attainable for humans or machines, such as how to invest your money, or whom to marry. Risk can be tamed by logic probability theory; uncertainty needs more smart heuristics. Many situations require both competencies. In this chapter, I introduce the tools for both forms of decision-making, the debates associated with the nature of rationality, and the link between decision-making and intelligence.