The problem with using only a fitness function (i.e. an explicit objective) for evolutionary algorithms: local optima.
In the context of evolutionary algorithms, deception describes when the combination of highly-fit components result in a solution further from the global optimum (towards a local optimum). Deception, in combination with sampling error and the ruggedness of a fitness landscape, are the main contributors to the difficulty of an evolutionary computation problem.
This problem can be mitigated by incorporating a novelty criteria - the dissimilarity of a new solution against existing solutions. This novelty search typically results in better solutions significantly more quickly than the conventional fitness-based approach.
The general approach involves keeping track of previous highly-novel solutions (a "novel archive"). The novelty of a solution is the average distance from either neighbors in the novel archive or in the current population. The particular distance measure is problem-dependent.
The paper proposes an additional criteria of surprise. Whereas novelty just requires that a solution be sufficiently different from existing ones, surprise also requires deviation from expectations.
One way of understanding the distinction is by viewing surprise as the time derivative of novelty; i.e. novelty is position, surprise is velocity.
To quantify the surprise of a solution, a surprise archive is maintained of the past
The surprise value
where
see also: Liapis, A., Yannakakis, G. N., & Togelius, J. (2015). [Constrained novelty search: A study on game content generation](http://julian.togelius.com/Liapis2014Constrained.pdf_. Evolutionary computation, 23(1), 101-129.