| DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz
Modeling the Modeling
The Orienting
Response in Information Processing
By Eugene N. Sokolov, John A. Spinks, Risto Näätänen, and
Heikki Lyytinen. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. xiv + 368 pp. Cloth, $89.95.
Adaptation entails the collection, storage, and organization
of environmental information and mechanisms allowing
this information to influence behavior. The need to acquire
knowledge about the world around us is such that
animals and humans actively explore their surroundings even
if they have to overcome serious obstacles and gain no
external reward as the result of this activity. The orienting
response (OR) is an essential part of exploratory
behavior. It is an irrepressible reaction to external stimuli (and perhaps also to symbolic internal events),
which optimizes the gathering and processing of the information
following or in anticipation of novel or significant
events. In The Orienting Response in Information
Processing, the authors explore the information
processing aspects of the orienting response.
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