Behind the Covers

The individual on the cover is Endel Tulving, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and one of the most influential memory researchers in experimental psychology. Our Neuron findings contradicted a prominent theory of memory lateralization put forth by Dr. Tulving and colleagues that argued for a left-hemisphere bias when encoding information into memory and a right-hemisphere bias when retrieving information from memory. With Dr. Tulving’s permission, we thought it would be entertaining to display the contradictory findings directly in his head. At the time, Dr. Tulving was a Visiting Professor of Psychology with us at Washington University, St. Louis. The chair of Psychology, Roddy Roediger, a former colleague of Dr. Tulving, approached him on our behalf about the cover idea. According to Roddy, the exchange went something like the following. Roddy: ‘‘Endel, how would you like to be on the cover of Neuron? Not your research, but your actual picture. I’m not in a position to guarantee it, but I can suggest it.’’ Endel: ‘‘How much do I have to pay to get myself on the cover?’’ —Steven Petersen and William Kelley