Final answer:
The work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman provided foundational insights into the availability heuristic, through their influential research in cognitive biases and decision-making.
Step-by-step explanation:
The work that helped generate insights about the availability heuristic was conducted by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. They are renowned for their pioneering research in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics, particularly regarding heuristics and biases in human decision-making. Their landmark paper, Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, published in 1974, provided foundational insights into the mental shortcuts that people use, which includes the availability heuristic - a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. Kahneman's work on heuristics and biases laid the groundwork for his later book, Thinking Fast and Slow, and further development of Prospect Theory.