Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Planning is an everyday activity that is extended in timeand space, yet is frequently studied in the absence ofinteractivity. Successful planning relies on an array ofexecutive functions including self-control. Weinvestigated the effects of interactivity and self-controlon planning using a sequential-task paradigm. Half ofthe participants first completed a video-viewing taskrequiring self-control of visual attention, whereas theother half completed the same task without the self-control constraint. Next, and within each of thesegroups, half of the participants manipulated cards tocomplete their plan (high-interactivity condition); for theother half, plans were made with their hands down (low-interactivity condition). Planning performance wassignificantly better in the high- than in the low-interactivity conditions; however the self-controlmanipulation had no impact on planning performance.An exploration of individual differences revealed thatlong-term planning ability and non-planningimpulsiveness moderated the impact of interactivity onplanning. These findings suggest that interactivityaugments working memory resources and planningperformance, underscoring the importance of aninteractive perspective on planning research.