This paper addresses the issue of modelling human forms of surprise and curiosity in an artificial perceptual agent. The following statements support our approach: humans are surprised when they perceive something that they did not expect; humans feel desire to learn more (i.e., feel curiosity) about novel (possibly unexpected) objects, usually manifested by focusing the senses on those objects...

Intelligent animals have a high degree of curiosity--the intrinsic desire to know--but the mechanisms of curiosity are poorly understood. A key open question pertains to the internal valuation systems that drive curiosity. What are the cognitive and emotional factors that motivate animals to seek information when this is not reinforced by instrumental rewards? Using a novel oculomotor paradigm,...

Curiosity is an innately rewarding state of mind that, over the millennia, has driven the human race to explore and discover. Many researches in pedagogical science have confirmed the importance of being curious to the students’ cognitive development. However, in the newly popular virtual world-based learning environments (VLEs), there is currently a lack of attention being paid to enhancing th...

Past media effects research suggests a relationship between morbid curiosity and processing of television news; however, the cognitive and emotional processes involved are little understood. This study compared physiological effects with self-reported reactions of viewers exposed to negative news stories. Fifty adults were shown eight news stories ranging from morbidly negative to positive topi...