eliza effect

ELIZA effect
 /@.li:'z@ @.fekt'/, n.

   [AI community] The tendency of humans to attach associations to terms
   from prior experience. For example, there is nothing magic about the
   symbol + that makes it well-suited to indicate addition; it's just
   that people associate it with addition. Using + or `plus' to mean
   addition in a computer language is taking advantage of the ELIZA
   effect.

   This term comes from the famous ELIZA program by Joseph Weizenbaum,
   which simulated a Rogerian psychotherapist by rephrasing many of the
   patient's statements as questions and posing them to the patient. It
   worked by simple pattern recognition and substitution of key words
   into canned phrases. It was so convincing, however, that there are
   many anecdotes about people becoming very emotionally caught up in
   dealing with ELIZA. All this was due to people's tendency to attach to
   words meanings which the computer never put there. The ELIZA effect is
   a {Good Thing} when writing a programming language, but it can blind
   you to serious shortcomings when analyzing an Artificial Intelligence
   system. Compare {ad-hockery}; see also {AI-complete}. Sources for a
   clone of the original Eliza are available at
   ftp://ftp.cc.utexas.edu/pub/AI_ATTIC/Programs/Classic/Eliza/Eliza.c.
    

ELIZA effect

   <jargon> /e-li:'z* *-fekt'/ (From {ELIZA}) The tendency of
   humans to attach associations to terms from prior experience.
   For example, there is nothing magic about the symbol "+" that
   makes it well-suited to indicate addition; it's just that
   people associate it with addition.  Using "+" or "plus" to
   mean addition in a computer language is taking advantage of
   the ELIZA effect.

   The ELIZA effect is a {Good Thing} when writing a programming
   language, but it can blind you to serious shortcomings when
   analysing an {Artificial Intelligence} system.

   Compare {ad-hockery}; see also {AI-complete}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1997-09-13)