Great article.

In a telling experiment under the same protocol as the ones listed above, people asked to reflect upon their choices were more likely to choose the house with the extra room for Grandma than the house with the shorter commute times, because the extra reflection gave more opportunity for the availability heuristic to come into play.

I am curious about the part after "because". Did the experiment you're referring to actually distinguish that explanation (availability heuristic) from other possible ones (such as signalling value, greater ease of putting some factors into words, etc)?

One of the reasons I'm curious is because I'd have thought that availability heuristic affects one more strongly when one takes a decision quickly and with little reflection.