Curiosity and Information Seeking in Animal and Human Behavior

Abstract

The purpose of the book is to deliver a critical review of the literature and author's research data relevant for understanding the phenomena of curiosity, information seeking behavior, and novelty seeking. The book is designed to be a comprehensive and systematic lecture of areas related to the main subject in a way that will enable the reader to grasp the notion of development in terms of the evolutionary time scale and ontogenesis. Each of the subjects is explained on the basis of three perspectives: ultimate factors, integrative levels, and proximate mechanisms. This work is intended to integrate approaches adopted within psychology, ethology, and behavioral neuroscience. The major uniqueness is related to the integrative levels framework, which is not very often utilized the the contemporary books on the subject. This is why the book offers holistic, complete presentation of the area that it does cover. It should be of interests of students of psychology, animal behavior, as well teachers and educators. It provides refreshing cues for creative thinking about human curiosity. The present edition includes new data and the discussion of the new literature on the subject.

About the Author

Wojciech Pisula is a Polish psychologist and professor at the Institute of Psychology (www.psych.pan.pl), Polish Academy of Sciences, and chairman of the scientific board of this Institute (2011-2015). He was also a member of the National Committee for Ethics in Animal Experimentation of The Ministry of Science and Higher Education in 2005-2013 and 2015-2019. His field of interests includes comparative psychology, animal behavior, sensation seeking, exploratory behavior of animals, response to novelty, and adaptation to change.