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)