Cognitive skills to deal with the challenge of complexity in planning

Abstract

Complex problems represent a serious challenge in planning. Planners must make use of incomplete and potentially contradictory information to reach diverse, at times conflicting goals. Nobody can apprehend all of the different variables involved at a glance. Nor is it possible to predict with certainty how they are likely to change in the future. The mental models (i.e. representations of our environment) with which planners operate are therefore prone to errors that inhere in the very process of cognition itself, which only compounds the difficulty that planners face when dealing with complexity. Drawing on foundational insights from planning theory and practice, as well as from cognitive psychology and the interdisciplinary field of complexity theory, this paper seeks to develop and define some key cognitive skills designed to make dealing with complex planning problems easier. Keywords: Cognitive Skills, Mental Models, Complexity