ABSTRACT
One of the first things that struck us both about Tom is his extraordinary desire and enthusiasm to truly understand the psychological phenomena he is investigating. Obtaining significant results or publishing another paper is irrelevant to Tom if it is not accompanied by a better grasp of the behavior. For us it meant learning that the adage “It ain’t over until it’s over” applies to the manner in which Tom approaches his investigations of psychological phenomena. After a hard day of working with Tom on a paper or on data analyses, success was not measured by the number of pages written or statistical analyses performed. Nor was it measured by how well and convincing our arguments were presented. Rather, it was measured by the extent to which Tom felt that he (and we in tow) had completely grasped what the data meant. A good indicator of that understanding was whether Tom would call before 8:00 the next morning to say that we needed to go over our interpretations again. Rarely did we wait for the phone call in vain! During the working sessions themselves, there often were times when we were hoping that Tom would get tired or sleepy (he never did) or that he would be satisfied with a “pretty good” argument (he never was). In the end, it set standards for us that we hope we will never lose and that we may sometimes even attain.
