The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-18
TRICKS OF MEMORY.
TESTS OF THE RELIABILITY OF REC
OBJECTION AT COLUMBIA.

a Question That Is Often Asked In Court
Trials That Is Not Always easily An
swered Corrcctiy-Lack of Accuracy of
the Memory In Common Occurrences.
have tried in various ways to secure
quantitatiyo determination of tho reliabil-
ity of recollection and evidence and will
here report on tho answers to some qucs-
tions asked tho junior class in psychology
In Columbia college in March, 1898. Tho
questions were answered in all or in part
by tho SO students present Several simple
questions were first asked and tho stu
dents allowed In each case one half minute
to consider and write the answer. They
were also requested to assign the conf
dence which they felt in tho correctness of
their answer. The first question was.
What was the weather a week ago today"
Inc answers were pretty equally distribut-
ed over all kinds of weather which arc pos
sible at the beginning of March, OF the
Oh answers 10 may bo classed rs 'clear,"
IL rain" Snow, 8 "stormy," 6
CLOUDY" and partly stormy and partly
clear Con tho day in question it showed
In tho morning and cleared In the late aft
ernoon.) 1t seems that an average man
with moderate time for reflection cannot
state much better what the weather was
week ago than what 1t will be week
hence. Yet this is question that might
naturally he asked in n court Of Justice.
An interruptions attorney can disoredit
tho statements of truthful witness by
ounningly selected questions. The jury,
or at least the judge, should know how far
errors In recollection are normal and how
they vary under different conditions.
Whom asked "What was the weather two
weeks agoP" 20 students answered "clear
and 1S stormy" The confldence,in this
case was slight, only two being sure that
their answers wero correct and eight hav-
ing some confidence, while tho others were
doubtful or did not answer Mt all. Three
questions were asked with view to learn
ing the ordinary accuracy of observation:
DO chestnut trees or onk trees lose their
leaves tho earlier in tho autumn" "Do
horses in tho fold stand with head or tail
to tho windT' Sin what direction do tho
seeds of an apple point?" Tho questions
were all answered correctly more often
than incorrectly, but only by moderate
majority. Thus 80 students thought that
chestnut trees lose their leaves tho earlier
In tho autumn, and 81 were of the opposite
opinion; 34 students thought that horses
in the field stand with tails to tho wind,
and 10 thought they stand facing It, Thus
In only about three cases out of five will a
college student answer such question
correctly.
Each class of persons would of course
have different index of precision. In
tho present cases country boys would prob
ably do better, whereas in other directions,
rs In judging Of character, they might not
do SO well. This opens up an interesting
direction of research. Is the ordinary OBJ
servation of men or women better, OF stu
dents In classical or scientific courses, etc?
Tho degree of confidence may be noticed
The students were sure their answers were
correct in all "a times, and In these cases
they were in fact correct 81 times. They
were somewhat or quite doubtful in oil 20
times, and in these cases were correct 81
times, scarcely more than n majority
Their judgment of their own accuracy was
therefore of some value, and tho degree of
confidence can with advantage be taken in
ordinary testimony. But there is great
individual difference in this respect.
Some observers are nearly always sure
that thcy are right whereas others whose
decision is equally or moro likely to be
correct are much less confident. In other
and moro elaborate experiments I have
found that when an observer is entirely
doubtful, for example, as to which of two
weights is tho heavier and makes guess
his guess is moro likely to DO right than
determining the part played by subcon-
scious Inference in tho decisions of daily
life as in judging the character from tho
face.
AS regards tho direction in which the
seeds in an apple point, "a answers were
upward, - or toward STEM" Is toward
center" 10 downward and three "out-
ward" Tho reader may be left to decide
whether or not he knows In what direction
tho Seeds III fact, point and what infor-
nation he can obtain from these answers
Three questions were asked intended to
determine Tho average accuracy III esti-
mating weight, distance and timo. These
were tho weight of tho textbook (James'
'Briefer Course" in psychology used by
tho class, the distance between two build
ings on the college grounds and tho time
usually taken by students to walk from
tho entrance door of the building to the
door OF tho lecture room. In these cases
there was marked tendency to underesti-
mate weight and to oyerestimato time
Length was overestimated, but to less
degree. For the magnitudes used the
average variation was about one third of
the weight and one half of tho di stance or
time. The actual errors were larger in
the case of weight and time, but not in
the case of distance. The middle estimate,
or medan value, is in all cases smaller
than the average. The degree Of conf
dcnco of the observer does not in these
cases soom to measure objective accuracy.
Science.
The Wonders of Transportation.