[visionlist] Davida Teller

[Steve Buck]

Davida Teller passed away in her sleep on the night of Wednesday, October 
12, 2011.  She will be missed.

Davida was a Professor at the University of Washington in the Department 
of Psychology and the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.  She is 
known for helping bring the study of infants to the vision community. 
Early in her career she developed a method known as "forced-choice 
preferential looking" that put infant data into a form familiar to 
scientists that study adult vision.  For three decades, she used this and 
other new methods to address the development of spatial, temporal and 
color vision.  She was not content with measuring behavior of human 
infants but also worked to make connections with the behavior, anatomy 
and physiology of infant monkeys.

Davida saw that her basic research could contribute to the health of 
infants.  She took the preferential looking method out of the lab and led 
the effort to develop the "Teller Acuity Cards."  They allow a clinician 
to make a quick assessment of an infant's acuity.  Davida took as her 
responsibility the application of her research to practice.

As Davida's career evolved, she devoted more time to understanding the 
principles of how to relate behavior to physiology.  This led to several 
articles on "Linking Propositions."  She loved these ideas and 
particularly enjoyed using them in teaching about vision.

Davida's legacy has other sides.  In the first part of her career, the 
world was harsh to women scientists and she made her feminist voice 
heard. In more recent times, that voice focused on mentoring her many 
students.  Her "red ink" and no-nonsense advice is deeply etched into her 
students and colleagues.  Her voice is now carried by generations of 
scientists.

Davida Teller is survived by her husband, Tony Young, her son, Steve, her 
daughter, Sara, and her grandchildren, Cole and Dean.  A memorial will be 
held in November at a date to be determined shortly.  If you wish to send 
a memory to the family, please send them to John Palmer at jpalmer at uw.edu. 
I will pass them on to the family.

John Palmer