This account of the current state of foraging theory is also a valuable description of the use of optimality theory in behavioral ecology in general. Organizing and introducing the main research themes in economic analyses of animal feeding behavior, the authors analyze the empirical evidence bearing on foraging models and answer criticisms of optimality modeling. They explain the rationale for applying optimality models to the strategies and mechanics of foraging and present the basic "average-rate maximizing" models and their extensions. The work discusses new directions in foraging research: incorporating incomplete information and risk-sensitive behavior in foraging models; analyzing trade-offs, such as nutrient requirements and the threat of being eaten while foraging; formulating dynamic models; and building constrained optimization models that assume that foragers can use only simple "rules of thumb." As an analysis of these and earlier research developments and as a contribution to debates about the role of theory in evolutionary biology. Foraging Theory will appeal to a wide range of readers, from students to research professionals, in behavioral ecology, population and community ecology, animal behavior, and animal psychology, and especially to those planning empirical tests of foraging models.

Peter Pirolli covers information foraging theory (IFT), a theory in adaptive information interaction. IFT analyses what people do to make sense of the huge amount of information available on the Internet and how they navigate it.

Although there is extensive literature in the field of behavioral ecology that attempts to explain foraging of individuals, social foraging--the ways in which animals search and compete for food in groups--has been relatively neglected. This book redresses that situation by providing both a synthesis of the existing literature and a new theory of social foraging. Giraldeau and Caraco develop models informed by game theory that offer a new framework for analysis. Social Foraging Theory contains the most comprehensive theoretical approach to its subject, coupled with quantitative methods that will underpin future work in the field. The new models and approaches that are outlined here will encourage new research directions and applications. To date, the analysis of social foraging has lacked unifying themes, clear recognition of the problems inherent in the study of social foraging, and consistent interaction between theory and experiments. This book identifies social foraging as an economic interaction between the actions of individuals and those of other foragers. This interdependence raises complex questions about the size of foraging groups, the diversity of resources used, and the propensity of group members to exploit each other or forage cooperatively. The models developed in the book will allow researchers to test their own approaches and predictions. Many years in development, Social Foraging Theory will interest researchers and graduate students in such areas as behavioral ecology, population ecology, evolutionary biology, and wildlife management.

Foraging is fundamental to animal survival and reproduction, yet it is much more than a simple matter of finding food; it is a biological imperative. Animals must find and consume resources to succeed, and they make extraordinary efforts to do so. For instance, pythons rarely eat, but when they do, their meals are large—as much as 60 percent larger than their own bodies. The snake’s digestive system is normally dormant, but during digestion metabolic rates can increase fortyfold. A python digesting quietly on the forest floor has the metabolic rate of thoroughbred in a dead heat. This and related foraging processes have broad applications in ecology, cognitive science, anthropology, and conservation biology—and they can be further extrapolated in economics, neurobiology, and computer science. Foraging is the first comprehensive review of the topic in more than twenty years. A monumental undertaking, this volume brings together twenty-two experts from throughout the field to offer the latest on the mechanics of foraging, modern foraging theory, and foraging ecology. The fourteen essays cover all the relevant issues, including cognition, individual behavior, caching behavior, parental behavior, antipredator behavior, social behavior, population and community ecology, herbivory, and conservation. Considering a wide range of taxa, from birds to mammals to amphibians, Foraging will be the definitive guide to the field.

Although much of the hubris and hyperbole surrounding the 1990's Internet has softened to a reasonable level, the inexorable momentum of information growth continues unabated. This wealth of information provides resources for adapting to the problems posed by our increasingly complex world, but the simple availability of more information does not guarantee its successful transformation into valuable knowledge that shapes, guides, and improves our activity. When faced with something like the analysis of sense-making behavior on the web, traditional research models tell us a lot about learning and performance with browser operations, but very little about how people will actively navigate and search through information structures, what information they will choose to consume, and what conceptual models they will induce about the landscape of cyberspace. Thus, it is fortunate that a new field of research, Adaptive Information Interaction (AII), is becoming possible. AII centers on the problems of understanding and improving human-information interaction. It is about how people will best shape themselves to their information environments, and how information environments can best be shaped to people. Its roots lie in human-computer interaction (HCI), information retrieval, and the behavioral and social sciences. This book is about Information Foraging Theory (IFT), a new theory in Adaptive Information Interaction that is one example of a recent flourish of theories in adaptationist psychology that draw upon evolutionary-ecological theory in biology. IFT assumes that people (indeed, all organisms) are ecologically rational, and that human information-seeking mechanisms and strategies adapt the structure of the information environments in which they operate. Its main aim is to create technology that is better shaped to users. Information Foraging Theory will be of interest to student and professional researchers in HCI and cognitive psychology.

Workload and other constraints prevent General Practitioners from accessing medical evidence for clinical decisions. This problem was studied in New Zealand GPs using Optimal Foraging Theory developed in ecology. GPs information search strategies were modelled as sequential steps associated with costs and benefits measured from logbooks of actual searches. By consulting the most profitable sources, switching sources when unsuccessful, and double checking, GPs seem close to an optimal trade-off between maximizing search success and information reliability, and minimizing searching time. Subsidised training in information searching and provision of a literature search service are two inferred avenues to access medical evidence.

HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks provides a thorough pedagological survey of the science of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). HCI spans many disciplines and professions, including anthropology, cognitive psychology, computer graphics, graphical design, human factors engineering, interaction design, sociology, and software engineering. While many books and courses now address HCI technology and application areas, none has addressed HCI's multidisciplinary foundations with much scope or depth. This text fills a huge void in the university education and training of HCI students as well as in the lifelong learning and professional development of HCI practitioners. Contributors are leading researchers in the field of HCI. If you teach a second course in HCI, you should consider this book. This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the HCI concepts and methods in use today, presenting enough comparative detail to make primary sources more accessible. Chapters are formatted to facilitate comparisons among the various HCI models. Each chapter focuses on a different level of scientific analysis or approach, but all in an identical format, facilitating comparison and contrast of the various HCI models. Each approach is described in terms of its roots, motivation, and type of HCI problems it typically addresses. The approach is then compared with its nearest neighbors, illustrated in a paradigmatic application, and analyzed in terms of its future. This book is essential reading for professionals, educators, and students in HCI who want to gain a better understanding of the theoretical bases of HCI, and who will make use of a good background, refresher, reference to the field and/or index to the literature. - Contributors are leading researchers in the field of Human-Comptuter Interaction - Fills a major gap in current literature about the rich scientific foundations of HCI - Provides a thorough pedogological survey of the science of HCI

Do the movements of animals, including humans, follow patterns that can be described quantitatively by simple laws of motion? If so, then why? These questions have attracted the attention of scientists in many disciplines, and stimulated debates ranging from ecological matters to queries such as 'how can there be free will if one follows a law of motion?' This is the first book on this rapidly evolving subject, introducing random searches and foraging in a way that can be understood by readers without a previous background on the subject. It reviews theory as well as experiment, addresses open problems and perspectives, and discusses applications ranging from the colonization of Madagascar by Austronesians to the diffusion of genetically modified crops. The book will interest physicists working in the field of anomalous diffusion and movement ecology as well as ecologists already familiar with the concepts and methods of statistical physics.

It is almost thirty years since Professor G. G. Winberg established the basis for experimental studies in fish energetics with the publication of his monograph, Rate of Metabolism and Food Requirements of Fishes. His ultimate aim was to develop a scientific approach to fish culture and management, and the immense volume of literature generated in the ensuing years has been mainly in response to the demand for information from a rapidly expanding, world-wide aquaculture industry and to the shortcomings of contemporary practices in fisheries management. The purpose of this book is not to review this literature compre hensively, but, assuming an informed readership, to focus attention on topics in which new knowledge and theory are beginning to be applied in practice. Most emphasis has been placed on food; feeding; production (growth and reproduction) and energy budgeting, as these have most influence on the development of fish culture. Some chapters offer practical advice for the selection of methods, and warn of pitfalls in previous approaches. In others the influence of new theory on the interpretation of studies in fish energetics is discussed in the context of resource allocation and adaptation. We hope that the scope of material presented here will have sufficient interest and value to help significantly to fulfil Winberg's original objectives.

"For the newcomer to the literature and logic of human behavioral ecology, this book is a flat-out bonanza—entirely accessible, self-critical, largely free of polemic, and, above all, stimulating beyond measure. It's an extraordinary contribution. Our understanding of the foraging-farming dynamic may just have changed forever."—David Hurst Thomas, American Museum of Natural History