Further explorations with a process model for water jug problems

Subjects performed a water jug task in which the object was to find a sequence of pouring operations that would produce a specified amount of water in each jug. A model for this task is presented and evaluated. The model makes strong assumptions concerning lack of planning in the water jug task. In addition, alternative models incorporating planning assumptions were considered. Alternative models were evaluated in two experiments. All experimental conditions were successfully simulated by making reasonable and well-motivated parameter changes in our model, which assumes no planning. Further, several classes of models incorporating planning assumptions were shown to be inconsistent with the observed results.