Cognitive Search

Over a century ago, William James proposed that people search through
memory much as they rummage through a house looking for lost keys. We scour our
environments for territory, food, mates, and information. We search for items in
visual scenes, for historical facts, and for the best deals on Internet sites; we
search for new friends to add to our social networks, and for solutions to novel
problems. What we find is always 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.