Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40206860›Full record

ArticleRoyal Society open science2025

Adaptive planning depth in human problem-solving.

Mattia Eluchans, Gian Luca Lancia, Antonella Maselli, Marco D'Alessandro, Jeremy Raboff Gordon, Giovanni Pezzulo

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Royal Society open science, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Adaptive planning depth in human problem-solving.Royal Society open science · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Mattia EluchansInstitute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
Gian Luca LanciaInstitute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
Antonella MaselliInstitute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
Marco D'AlessandroInstitute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
Jeremy Raboff GordonUniversity of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4514-5284
Giovanni PezzuloInstitute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6813-8282

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

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.

Indexed as

bounded rationalitycognitive searchplanningproblem-solving

Identifiers

PMID40206860
PMCPMC11978448

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.