Artificial Surprise

This chapter reviews research on computational models of surprise. Part 1 begins with a description of the phenomenon of surprise in humans, reviews research on human surprise, and describes a psychological model of surprise (Meyer, Reisenzein, & Schützwohl, 1997). Part 2 is devoted to computational models of surprise, giving special prominence to the models proposed by Macedo and Cardoso (e.g., Macedo & Cardoso, 2001b) and by Lorini and Castelfranchi (e.g., Lorini & Castelfranchi, 2007). Part 3 compares the two models of artificial surprise with each other and with the Meyer et al. model of human surprise, discusses possible targets of future research, and considers possible practical applications.