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 (lateralized) 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.

翻译：人类规划具有高效性——它能精打细算地部署有限的认知资源来完成困难任务——同时兼具灵活性——能够适应新颖的问题和环境。计算方法表明，人们会构建其环境的简化心理表征，在任务表征的复杂度与其效用之间取得平衡。这些模型暗示了一种嵌套优化过程：规划塑造感知，感知反作用于规划——但支配这一交互过程的感知和注意力机制仍属未知。本研究利用虚拟迷宫导航实验，刻画空间注意力如何控制任务表征的哪些方面进入主观意识并可供规划使用。我们发现，空间邻近性决定了迷宫的哪些方面可供规划使用；当任务相关信息遵循注意力自然（侧向化）的轮廓时，人们能更轻松地构建出简化的、有用的迷宫表征。注意力的这种影响在不同个体间差异显著，解释了人们在任务表征与行为上的差异。受"注意力聚光灯"比喻的启发，我们将视觉空间注意力的效应纳入现有价值导向建构的计算模型中。综合而言，我们的工作架起了感知与决策计算视角之间的桥梁，以更深入地理解个体如何为辅助规划而表征其环境。