Two Markov Solution Process Models for the Assessment of Planning in Problem Solving

Tower tasks are popular tools used to measure planning skills. The sequences of moves undertaken by the respondents in solving tower tasks might provide important and useful information to shed light on their planning skills. The article focuses on the distinction between a situation where planning occurs before action (pre-planning) from one where planning and action are interlaced all along the execution of the task (interim-planning). While the model for pre-planning was already developed by Stefanutti et al. (2021), an alternative model for the interim-planning is proposed. The two models are compared with one another in an empirical study. In accordance with the literature on the development of planning skills, the pre-planning model better fits data collected on individuals aged 14 on, while the interim-planning model displays a better fit with data collected on individuals aged 4–8. This result is further corroborated by the analysis of the time performance.