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]
