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Donald O. Hebb
(22 Jul 1904 - 20 Aug 1985)
Canadian psychologist who studied the role of neurons in learning and other psychological processes. He wrote The Organization of Behavior, which included his theory of neural networking.
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Science Quotes by Donald O. Hebb (2 quotes)
As far as he can achieve it, readability is as important for the scientific writer as it is for the novelist.
— Donald O. Hebb
From D.O. Hebb and Dalbir Bindra, 'Scientific Writing and the General Problem of Communication', The American Psychologist (Oct 1952), 7, 569-673. Excerpted and cited in Ritchie R. Ward, Practical Technical Writing (1968), 33.
The neurons that fire together wire together.
— Donald O. Hebb
Hebb's rule, saying that two neurons firing together will strengthen the connection and make it easier for the two neurons to illicit a response from the third in neural networking. This is a catch-phrase, a summary, not a verbatim quote. Hebb explains his idea at length in The Organization of Behavior (1949).
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
