We humans are capable of solving challenging planning problems, but the range of adaptive strategies that we use to address them is not yet fully characterized. Here, we designed a series of problem-solving tasks that require planning at different depths. After systematically comparing the performance of participants and planning models, we found that when facing problems that require planning to a certain number of subgoals (from 1 to 8), participants make an adaptive use of their cognitive resources-namely, they tend to select an initial plan having the minimum required depth, rather than selecting the same depth for all problems. These results support the view of problem-solving as a bounded rational process, which adapts costly cognitive resources to task demands.
Adaptive planning depth in human problem-solving
Maselli A.;
2025-01-01
Abstract
We humans are capable of solving challenging planning problems, but the range of adaptive strategies that we use to address them is not yet fully characterized. Here, we designed a series of problem-solving tasks that require planning at different depths. After systematically comparing the performance of participants and planning models, we found that when facing problems that require planning to a certain number of subgoals (from 1 to 8), participants make an adaptive use of their cognitive resources-namely, they tend to select an initial plan having the minimum required depth, rather than selecting the same depth for all problems. These results support the view of problem-solving as a bounded rational process, which adapts costly cognitive resources to task demands.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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