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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.05.02.539099

Adaptive planning depth in human problem solving

Eluchans, M.·Lancia, G. L.·Maselli, A.·D'Alessandro, M.·Gordon, J.·Pezzulo, G.
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Abstract

We humans are capable of solving challenging planning problems, but the range of adaptive strategies that we use to address them are 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.

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Eluchans, M., Lancia, G. L., Maselli, A., D'Alessandro, M., Gordon, J., Pezzulo, G.. 2023-05-03. Adaptive planning depth in human problem solving. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.02.539099

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