Mathematics of surprise. David Pescovitz:
Mathematics of surprise. David Pescovitz:
Scientists have modeled surprise in the form of a mathematical theory. The computational model is capable of predicting what stimuli an individual will pay attention to amidst the flood of sensory of data. In their experiments, the researchers from the University of Southern California and UC Irvine’s Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics used their theory to identify the most “surprising” features in a video. Then, they observed the eye movements of humans watching the same video. Apparently, the subjects’ responses matched the predictions of the computational model. According to the scientists, “efficient and rapid attentional allocation is key to predation, escape, and mating — in short, to survival.” Link [Boing Boing]
