Abstract
Human planning is efficient -- it frugally deploys limited cognitive resources to accomplish difficult tasks -- and flexible -- adapting to novel problems and environments. Computational approaches suggest that people construct simplified mental representations of their environment, balancing the complexity of a task representation with its utility. These models imply a nested optimisation in which planning shapes perception, and perception shapes planning -- but the perceptual and attentional mechanisms governing how this interaction unfolds remain unknown. Here, we harness virtual maze navigation to characterise how spatial attention controls which aspects of a task representation enter subjective awareness and are available for planning. We find that spatial proximity governs which aspects of a maze are available for planning, and that when task-relevant information follows natural (lateralised) contours of attention, people can more easily construct simplified and useful maze representations. This influence of attention varies considerably across individuals, explaining differences in people's task representations and behaviour. Inspired by the 'spotlight of attention' analogy, we incorporate the effects of visuospatial attention into existing computational accounts of value-guided construal. Together, our work bridges computational perspectives on perception and decision-making to better understand how individuals represent their environments in aid of planning.
Abstract (translated)
人类的规划既高效又灵活。它以节俭的方式部署有限的认知资源，以完成困难的任务，并能适应新出现的问题和环境。计算方法表明，人们会构建自己环境的简化心理表征，在任务表示的复杂性和其实用性之间取得平衡。这些模型暗示了一个嵌套优化的过程：规划塑造感知，而感知又反过来影响规划——但控制这种互动展开的认知和注意力机制仍然未知。 在这里，我们利用虚拟迷宫导航来研究空间注意如何控制哪些任务方面的信息进入主观意识，并可用于规划。我们的发现表明，空间上的接近性决定了迷宫中哪些方面可以被用于规划，并且当与任务相关的数据遵循自然（偏侧化）的注意力轮廓时，人们更容易构建出简化和有用的迷宫表征。这种注意力的影响在个体间差异很大，解释了不同人在任务表示和行为方面的差异。 受“注意聚焦”类比的启发，我们将视觉空间注意的效果融入现有的价值导向建构计算模型中。我们这项工作将感知与决策制定的计算观点相结合，以更好地理解个人如何表征环境来帮助规划。
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09520
