Information-foraging is a theory of human information-seeking behavior that models how people search for, evaluate, and extract information. The theory specifies that information seekers act as rational agents who balance the value of information gained against the cost of effort required to access it, following 'patch-leaving' rules analogous to optimal foraging in ecology. The theory persists through academic teaching, empirical testing in HCI and psychology, and application to interface design. [formal: information-foraging | substrate: mind | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
information-foraging
Information-foraging is a theory of human information-seeking behavior that models how people search for, evaluate, and extract information. The theory specifies that information seekers act as rational agents who balance the value of info…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made theory in information science that models information-seeking behavior as analogous to animal foraging — people optimize their information-gathering based on the perceived 'value' (information utility) and 'cost' (effort to access) of information sources, developed by Peter Pirolli and Stuart Card in 1999.
Names and aliases
- information-foragingen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrhd0tp101ho8aehezhlxwghINSTANCE_OF →
Information foraging is a specific kind of strategy (Law 9). A competent speaker would call it a strategy.
- cmrnpwjwq02y6d1nl4am3t71xSERVES →
Information-foraging theory models how agents gather information to reduce uncertainty and make decisions. Its designed purpose is to serve decision-making by guiding search strategies toward information-rich patches. Per Law 8d: for whose sake does information-foraging operate? For decision-making.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 6, 2026, 2:24 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 5970015a2112a71d42d0b90225874b5ae34d7d902d36b2fc631b50f03bbc48a1