On 8 Apr 2009 at 10:05, Claudia Stanny wrote: > I have a vague recollection of references to yellow Volkswagen > detectors, too. > Barlow attributes this to Harris (1980)
Yet first Doug Wallen, and then Mike Palij, who bears responsibililty for first inflicting pedantic thoughts of yellow Volkswagens on us, instead maintain that it was Naomi Weisstein who originated this pithy term. MIke cites: Weisstein, N. (1973). Beyond the yellow-volkswagen detector and the grandmother cell: A general strategy for the exploration of operations in human pattern recognition. Contemporary issues in cognitive psychology: The loyola symposium. (Robert L. Solso, Ed.). Oxford, England: V. H. Winston & Sons. 1973 beats 1980, so it's Weisstein's baby, right? Not so fast, citation- breath. Claudia's reference is to this work: Harris, Charles S. (1980) (ed). Visual Coding and Adaptability, Erlbaum Google provides a generous sample of its contents. Harris says on p. 130 (http://tinyurl.com/dg5xhm ): "Years ago I fabricated the "yellow Volkswagen detector" to draw attention to the unpalatable inventory that this approach seems to be heading for". He gives two sources: Harris, 1968 and Harris, 1971, both of which predate Weisstein. Unfortunately, both are to talks, one in Ithaca, NY, the other in (of all places) St. John's, Newfoundland. This is definitive enough for me, but as there is nothing in print, a stickler might like to see an acknowledgement by Weisstein that she heard it from Harris. Not having access to her 1973 essay, I can't check this. But she did have opportunity. It did not escape my notice that one of the chapters in the book edited by Harris where Harris's claim appears is co- authored by Weisstein and Harris (Masking and Unmasking of Distributed Representations in the Nervous System). So who is this Charles S. Harris who conceives of visions of yellow Volkswagens in the nervous system? He's a cognitive psychologist, late of Bell Laboratories. In one of his posts he identifies himself as an "erstwhile U. Penn. psych prof, briefly", but in another as "webmaster, The Nurture Assumption website: http://home.att.net/~xchar/tna/";. And he's a member of TIPS, albeit an infrequent contributor. As for grandmother cells, I think I've stumbled upon the originator of the term. In a guest editorial in _Perception_ [see http://www.perceptionweb.com/perception/perc0896/editorial.html ] David Rose (1996) tells us it was Jerry Lettvin in 1969. Interestingly, it seems that Lettvin never put this idea down on paper either, and the concept first appeared in print in Barlow (1972). Moral: If you're going to invent a pithy new term, it's best to do it in print if you want to be sure to receive credit for it. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
