Peter M. Todd, Thomas T. Hills, and Trevor W. Robbins (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
Over a century ago, William James proposed that people search through memory much as they rummage through a house looking for lost keys. Like other animal species search space, we scour our ...
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Over a century ago, William James proposed that people search through memory much as they rummage through a house looking for lost keys. Like other animal species search space, we scour our environments for territory, food, mates, and other goals, including information. We search for items in visual scenes, for historical facts and shopping deals on internet sites, for new friends to add to our social networks, and for solutions to novel problems. In all these spaces, what we find is governed by how we search and by the structure of the environment. This book explores how we search for resources in our minds and in the world. The authors examine the evolution and adaptive functions of search; the neural underpinnings of goal-searching mechanisms across species; psychological models of search in memory, decision making, and visual scenes; and applications of search behavior in highly complex environments such as the internet. As the range of information, social contacts, and goods continues to expand, how well we are able to search and successfully find what we seek becomes increasingly important. At the same time, search offers cross-disciplinary insights to the scientific study of human cognition and its evolution. Combining perspectives from researchers across numerous domains, this book furthers our understanding of the relationship between search and the human mind.Less
Over a century ago, William James proposed that people search through memory much as they rummage through a house looking for lost keys. Like other animal species search space, we scour our environments for territory, food, mates, and other goals, including information. We search for items in visual scenes, for historical facts and shopping deals on internet sites, for new friends to add to our social networks, and for solutions to novel problems. In all these spaces, what we find is governed by how we search and by the structure of the environment. This book explores how we search for resources in our minds and in the world. The authors examine the evolution and adaptive functions of search; the neural underpinnings of goal-searching mechanisms across species; psychological models of search in memory, decision making, and visual scenes; and applications of search behavior in highly complex environments such as the internet. As the range of information, social contacts, and goods continues to expand, how well we are able to search and successfully find what we seek becomes increasingly important. At the same time, search offers cross-disciplinary insights to the scientific study of human cognition and its evolution. Combining perspectives from researchers across numerous domains, this book furthers our understanding of the relationship between search and the human mind.
Catharine A. Winstanley, Trevor W. Robbins, Bernard W. Balleine, Joshua W. Brown, Christian Büchel, Roshan Cools, Daniel Durstewitz, John P. O’Doherty, Cyriel M. A. Pennartz, A. David Redish, and Jeremy K. Seamans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
The process of cognitive search invokes a purposeful and iterative process by which an organism considers information of a potentially diverse nature and selects a particular option that best matches ...
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The process of cognitive search invokes a purposeful and iterative process by which an organism considers information of a potentially diverse nature and selects a particular option that best matches the appropriate criteria. This chapter focuses on the neurobiological basis of such a goal-directed search by parsing the process into its main components, suggested here as initiation, identification of search space, deliberation, action selection, and evaluation and search termination. Unexpected uncertainty is suggested as a key trigger for the onset of the search process. Current data posit that this is represented in the anterior cingulate, parietal, and inferior frontal cortices, suggesting these areas could be particularly important in search initiation. A change in motivational state, likely signaled by a wide range of brain regions including the amygdala, can also play a role at this stage. The neural structures which represent the set of to-be-searched options may vary depending on the search domain (e.g., spatial, visual, linguistic). During deliberation, predictions regarding the consequences of selecting these options are generated and compared, implicating areas of frontal cortex as well as the hippocampus and striatum, which are known to play a role in different aspects of outcome evaluation. Action planning and selection likely involve an interplay between the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia, whereas search termination could involve the specific neural networks implicated in response inhibition. The influence exerted over the search process by the major ascending neuromodulators (dopamine, norepinephrine/noradrenaline, serotonin, and acetylcholine) is also considered, and a particularly critical role suggested for dopamine and noradrenaline, given their ability to influence cognitive flexibility and arousal. Finally, pathologies of search processes are discussed, both with respect to brain damage and psychiatric illness.Less
The process of cognitive search invokes a purposeful and iterative process by which an organism considers information of a potentially diverse nature and selects a particular option that best matches the appropriate criteria. This chapter focuses on the neurobiological basis of such a goal-directed search by parsing the process into its main components, suggested here as initiation, identification of search space, deliberation, action selection, and evaluation and search termination. Unexpected uncertainty is suggested as a key trigger for the onset of the search process. Current data posit that this is represented in the anterior cingulate, parietal, and inferior frontal cortices, suggesting these areas could be particularly important in search initiation. A change in motivational state, likely signaled by a wide range of brain regions including the amygdala, can also play a role at this stage. The neural structures which represent the set of to-be-searched options may vary depending on the search domain (e.g., spatial, visual, linguistic). During deliberation, predictions regarding the consequences of selecting these options are generated and compared, implicating areas of frontal cortex as well as the hippocampus and striatum, which are known to play a role in different aspects of outcome evaluation. Action planning and selection likely involve an interplay between the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia, whereas search termination could involve the specific neural networks implicated in response inhibition. The influence exerted over the search process by the major ascending neuromodulators (dopamine, norepinephrine/noradrenaline, serotonin, and acetylcholine) is also considered, and a particularly critical role suggested for dopamine and noradrenaline, given their ability to influence cognitive flexibility and arousal. Finally, pathologies of search processes are discussed, both with respect to brain damage and psychiatric illness.
Thorsten Pachur, Jeroen G. W. Raaijmakers, Eddy J. Davelaar, Nathaniel D. Daw, Michael R. Dougherty, Bernhard Hommel, Michael D. Lee, Sean M. Polyn, K. Richard Ridderinkhof, Peter M. Todd, and Jeremy M. Wolfe
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0015
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
This chapter discusses commonalities and differences in the cognitive mechanisms underlying different search tasks, such as spatial search, visual search, memory retrieval, action search, problem ...
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This chapter discusses commonalities and differences in the cognitive mechanisms underlying different search tasks, such as spatial search, visual search, memory retrieval, action search, problem solving, and decision making. Three key issues relevant across all types of search are distinguished: (a) the initiation of search, (b) the maintenance and adaptive modification of the search process, and (c) the termination of search. As to search initiation, research is summarized concerning the effect of the number of cues on difficulty for executing search, and which factors structure the cue hierarchy. Discussion follows on how knowledge about metacognitive processes in memory might be used for better understanding the processes in maintenance of search, and heuristic principles for stopping search, possibly shared across different search tasks, are identified. Finally, consideration is given to how search processes might change as a function of experience and aging.Less
This chapter discusses commonalities and differences in the cognitive mechanisms underlying different search tasks, such as spatial search, visual search, memory retrieval, action search, problem solving, and decision making. Three key issues relevant across all types of search are distinguished: (a) the initiation of search, (b) the maintenance and adaptive modification of the search process, and (c) the termination of search. As to search initiation, research is summarized concerning the effect of the number of cues on difficulty for executing search, and which factors structure the cue hierarchy. Discussion follows on how knowledge about metacognitive processes in memory might be used for better understanding the processes in maintenance of search, and heuristic principles for stopping search, possibly shared across different search tasks, are identified. Finally, consideration is given to how search processes might change as a function of experience and aging.
Bernhard Hommel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0014
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
Human goal-directed action emerges from the interaction between stimulus-driven sensorimotor online systems and slower-working control systems that relate highly processed perceptual information to ...
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Human goal-directed action emerges from the interaction between stimulus-driven sensorimotor online systems and slower-working control systems that relate highly processed perceptual information to the construction of goal-related action plans. This distribution of labor requires the acquisition of enduring action representations; that is, of memory traces which capture the main characteristics of successful actions and their consequences. It is argued here that these traces provide the building blocks for off-line prospective action planning, which renders the search through stored action representations an essential part of action control. Hence, action planning requires cognitive search (through possible options) and might have led to the evolution of cognitive search routines that humans have learned to employ for other purposes as well, such as searching for perceptual events and through memory. Thus, what is commonly considered to represent different types of search operations may all have evolved from action planning and share the same characteristics. Evidence is discussed which suggests that all types of cognitive search—be it in searching for perceptual events, for suitable actions, or through memory—share the characteristic of following a fixed sequence of cognitive operations: divergent search followed by convergent search.Less
Human goal-directed action emerges from the interaction between stimulus-driven sensorimotor online systems and slower-working control systems that relate highly processed perceptual information to the construction of goal-related action plans. This distribution of labor requires the acquisition of enduring action representations; that is, of memory traces which capture the main characteristics of successful actions and their consequences. It is argued here that these traces provide the building blocks for off-line prospective action planning, which renders the search through stored action representations an essential part of action control. Hence, action planning requires cognitive search (through possible options) and might have led to the evolution of cognitive search routines that humans have learned to employ for other purposes as well, such as searching for perceptual events and through memory. Thus, what is commonly considered to represent different types of search operations may all have evolved from action planning and share the same characteristics. Evidence is discussed which suggests that all types of cognitive search—be it in searching for perceptual events, for suitable actions, or through memory—share the characteristic of following a fixed sequence of cognitive operations: divergent search followed by convergent search.
Wai-Tat Fu
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0018
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
Generally speaking, two conditions make cognitive search possible: (a) symbolic structures must be present in the environment and (b) these structures must be detectable by a searcher, whose behavior ...
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Generally speaking, two conditions make cognitive search possible: (a) symbolic structures must be present in the environment and (b) these structures must be detectable by a searcher, whose behavior changes based on the structures detected. In this chapter, information search on the Internet is used to illustrate how a theoretical framework of these two conditions can assist our understanding of cognitive search. Discussion begins with information foraging theory (IFT), which predicts how general symbolic structures may exist in an information environment and how the searcher may use these structures to search for information. A computational model called SNIF-ACT (developed based on IFT) is then presented and provides a good match to online information search for specific target information. Because a further component important to cognitive search is the ability to detect and learn useful structures in the environment, discussion follows on how IFT can be extended to explain search behavior that involves incremental learning of the search environment. Illustration is provided on how different forms of semantic structures may exist in the World Wide Web, and how human searchers can learn from these structures to improve their search. Finally, the SNIFACT model is extended to characterize directed and exploratory information foraging behavior in information environments.Less
Generally speaking, two conditions make cognitive search possible: (a) symbolic structures must be present in the environment and (b) these structures must be detectable by a searcher, whose behavior changes based on the structures detected. In this chapter, information search on the Internet is used to illustrate how a theoretical framework of these two conditions can assist our understanding of cognitive search. Discussion begins with information foraging theory (IFT), which predicts how general symbolic structures may exist in an information environment and how the searcher may use these structures to search for information. A computational model called SNIF-ACT (developed based on IFT) is then presented and provides a good match to online information search for specific target information. Because a further component important to cognitive search is the ability to detect and learn useful structures in the environment, discussion follows on how IFT can be extended to explain search behavior that involves incremental learning of the search environment. Illustration is provided on how different forms of semantic structures may exist in the World Wide Web, and how human searchers can learn from these structures to improve their search. Finally, the SNIFACT model is extended to characterize directed and exploratory information foraging behavior in information environments.
Peter M. Todd, Thomas T. Hills, and Trevor W. Robbins
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
Search is a common and crucial behavior for most organisms. It requires individuals to achieve an adaptive trade-off between exploration for new resources distributed in space or time and ...
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Search is a common and crucial behavior for most organisms. It requires individuals to achieve an adaptive trade-off between exploration for new resources distributed in space or time and exploitation of those resources once they are found. Common to so many aspects of our lives, search behavior has been studied in a diverse range of scientific disciplines and paradigms: theoretical biologists study the characteristics of evolutionary search in high-dimensional spaces; behavioral ecologists analyze animals foraging for food; experimental psychologists investigate search in vision, memory, decision making, and problem solving; neuroscientists study the neural mechanisms of goal-directed behavior in humans and other animals; psychiatrists and clinical neuroscientists analyze aberrant volition such as drug-seeking behavior in addiction and attentional control in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; computer scientists develop information search algorithms for mining large-scale databases and for individual navigation of the World Wide Web; social psychologists investigate how people seek and choose mates and friends; and political scientists study how groups look for solutions to problems. The need to integrate these insights further has led to the current book, which provides a cross-cutting perspective on the commonalities of cognitive search in different search domains.Less
Search is a common and crucial behavior for most organisms. It requires individuals to achieve an adaptive trade-off between exploration for new resources distributed in space or time and exploitation of those resources once they are found. Common to so many aspects of our lives, search behavior has been studied in a diverse range of scientific disciplines and paradigms: theoretical biologists study the characteristics of evolutionary search in high-dimensional spaces; behavioral ecologists analyze animals foraging for food; experimental psychologists investigate search in vision, memory, decision making, and problem solving; neuroscientists study the neural mechanisms of goal-directed behavior in humans and other animals; psychiatrists and clinical neuroscientists analyze aberrant volition such as drug-seeking behavior in addiction and attentional control in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; computer scientists develop information search algorithms for mining large-scale databases and for individual navigation of the World Wide Web; social psychologists investigate how people seek and choose mates and friends; and political scientists study how groups look for solutions to problems. The need to integrate these insights further has led to the current book, which provides a cross-cutting perspective on the commonalities of cognitive search in different search domains.
Joshua W. Brown and Derek E. Nee
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
At a basic level, cognitive search involves several parameters: Under what circumstances should a search be initiated, and how should the goal be specified? What are the criteria by which the search ...
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At a basic level, cognitive search involves several parameters: Under what circumstances should a search be initiated, and how should the goal be specified? What are the criteria by which the search is judged a success or failure? How are corrective actions implemented when search strategies are judged insufficient? Studies of cognitive control have the potential to address each of these questions. In this chapter, a number of issues related to executive control of search are discussed, including the way in which hierarchical search goals are monitored and updated. A new theory of cognitive control is proposed to begin to answer these questions, and open questions that remain are highlighted for future enquiry.Less
At a basic level, cognitive search involves several parameters: Under what circumstances should a search be initiated, and how should the goal be specified? What are the criteria by which the search is judged a success or failure? How are corrective actions implemented when search strategies are judged insufficient? Studies of cognitive control have the potential to address each of these questions. In this chapter, a number of issues related to executive control of search are discussed, including the way in which hierarchical search goals are monitored and updated. A new theory of cognitive control is proposed to begin to answer these questions, and open questions that remain are highlighted for future enquiry.
Thomas T. Hills and Reuven Dukas
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
Search can be defined as an attempt to arrive at a goal at an unknown location in the physical environment, as well as in time, memory, or any other space. Search is necessary because the quantity ...
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Search can be defined as an attempt to arrive at a goal at an unknown location in the physical environment, as well as in time, memory, or any other space. Search is necessary because the quantity and quality of resources essential to survival and reproduction vary in space and time. In addition to exploration through actual body movement in their environment, animals search their external information space through selective allocation of attention and their internal information space to retrieve relevant items from memory. This chapter integrates data on search in three distinct domains—physical movement, attention to external information, and locating items in memory—to highlight the remarkable similarities between these three domains. First, resources in all three domains are typically distributed in patches. Second, in each of the three domains, animals typically keep searching in patches where they have recently found resources and leave areas when none are found or where they have already depleted the resources. Third, the neurobiological mechanisms modulating the exploration for and exploitation of resources in all three domains involve dopamine as well as, in many vertebrates, regions of the prefrontal cortex and striatum. It is suggested that, throughout evolution, animals co-opted existing strategies and mechanisms used to search their physical space for exploring and exploiting internal and external information spaces. The cross-disciplinary integration of theory and data about search can be used to guide future research on the mechanisms underlying cognitive search.Less
Search can be defined as an attempt to arrive at a goal at an unknown location in the physical environment, as well as in time, memory, or any other space. Search is necessary because the quantity and quality of resources essential to survival and reproduction vary in space and time. In addition to exploration through actual body movement in their environment, animals search their external information space through selective allocation of attention and their internal information space to retrieve relevant items from memory. This chapter integrates data on search in three distinct domains—physical movement, attention to external information, and locating items in memory—to highlight the remarkable similarities between these three domains. First, resources in all three domains are typically distributed in patches. Second, in each of the three domains, animals typically keep searching in patches where they have recently found resources and leave areas when none are found or where they have already depleted the resources. Third, the neurobiological mechanisms modulating the exploration for and exploitation of resources in all three domains involve dopamine as well as, in many vertebrates, regions of the prefrontal cortex and striatum. It is suggested that, throughout evolution, animals co-opted existing strategies and mechanisms used to search their physical space for exploring and exploiting internal and external information spaces. The cross-disciplinary integration of theory and data about search can be used to guide future research on the mechanisms underlying cognitive search.
John M. C. Hutchinson, David W. Stephens, Melissa Bateson, Iain Couzin, Reuven Dukas, Luc-Alain Giraldeau, Thomas T. Hills, Frederic Méry, and Bruce Winterhalder
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
This chapter reports the discussion of a group of mostly behavioral biologists, who attempt to put research on search from their own discipline into a framework that might help identify parallels ...
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This chapter reports the discussion of a group of mostly behavioral biologists, who attempt to put research on search from their own discipline into a framework that might help identify parallels with cognitive search. Essential components of search are a functional goal, uncertainty about goal location, the adaptive varying of position, and often a stopping rule. The chapter considers a diversity of cases where search is in domains other than spatial and lists other important dimensions in which search problems differ. One dimension examined in detail is social interactions between searchers and searchers, targets and targets, and targets and searchers. The producer-scrounger game is presented as an example; despite the extensive empirical and theoretical work on the equilibrium between the strategies, it is largely an open problem how animals decide when to adopt each strategy, and thus how real equilibria are attained. Another dimension that explains some of the diversity of search behavior is the modality of the information utilized (e.g., visual, auditory, olfactory). The chapter concludes by highlighting further parallels between search in the external environment and cognitive search. These suggest some novel avenues of research.Less
This chapter reports the discussion of a group of mostly behavioral biologists, who attempt to put research on search from their own discipline into a framework that might help identify parallels with cognitive search. Essential components of search are a functional goal, uncertainty about goal location, the adaptive varying of position, and often a stopping rule. The chapter considers a diversity of cases where search is in domains other than spatial and lists other important dimensions in which search problems differ. One dimension examined in detail is social interactions between searchers and searchers, targets and targets, and targets and searchers. The producer-scrounger game is presented as an example; despite the extensive empirical and theoretical work on the equilibrium between the strategies, it is largely an open problem how animals decide when to adopt each strategy, and thus how real equilibria are attained. Another dimension that explains some of the diversity of search behavior is the modality of the information utilized (e.g., visual, auditory, olfactory). The chapter concludes by highlighting further parallels between search in the external environment and cognitive search. These suggest some novel avenues of research.
David Lazer and Ethan S. Bernstein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262018098
- eISBN:
- 9780262306003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262018098.003.0017
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
This chapter examines the role that networks play in facilitating or inhibiting search for solutions to problems at both the individual and collective levels. At the individual level, search in ...
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This chapter examines the role that networks play in facilitating or inhibiting search for solutions to problems at both the individual and collective levels. At the individual level, search in networks enables individuals to transport themselves to a very different location in the solution space than they could likely reach through isolated experimental or cognitive search. Research on networks suggests that (a) ties to diverse others provide a wider menu of choices and insights for individuals, and (b) strong ties will be relatively more useful for complex information, and weak ties for simple information. At the collective level, these conclusions become less clear. The key question is how the collective operates to coordinate within the group versus beyond it so as to balance experimentation and convergence toward a solution. Collective coordination of search and collective evaluation of potential solutions may significantly influence the optimal network structure for collective problem-solving search.Less
This chapter examines the role that networks play in facilitating or inhibiting search for solutions to problems at both the individual and collective levels. At the individual level, search in networks enables individuals to transport themselves to a very different location in the solution space than they could likely reach through isolated experimental or cognitive search. Research on networks suggests that (a) ties to diverse others provide a wider menu of choices and insights for individuals, and (b) strong ties will be relatively more useful for complex information, and weak ties for simple information. At the collective level, these conclusions become less clear. The key question is how the collective operates to coordinate within the group versus beyond it so as to balance experimentation and convergence toward a solution. Collective coordination of search and collective evaluation of potential solutions may significantly influence the optimal network structure for collective problem-solving search.
