The Drive for Knowledge: The Science of Human Information Seeking

Humans constantly search for and use information to solve a wide range of problems related to survival, social interactions, and learning. While it is clear that curiosity and the drive for knowledge occupies a central role in defining what being human means to ourselves, where does this desire to know the unknown come from? What is its purpose? And how does it operate? These are some of the core questions this book seeks to answer by showcasing new and exciting research on human information-seeking. The volume brings together perspectives from leading researchers at the cutting edge of the cognitive sciences, working on human brains and behavior within psychology, computer science, and neuroscience. These vital connections between disciplines will continue to lead to further breakthroughs in our understanding of human cognition.

Irene Cogliati Dezza is a Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London.

Charley M. Wu is Research Group Leader in the Human and Machine Cognition Lab at the University of Tübingen.

Eric Schulz is a Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.