Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1896-03-26
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 Correctly--Lack OF Accuracy of
the Memory In Common Occurrences.
have tried In various ways to secure q
quantitativo determination of tho roliabil-
ity of recollection and evidence and will
here report on tho answers to some quos
tions asked tho junior class in psychology
in Columbia college in March, 1898. Tho
questions were answered In oil or In part
by tho SO students present. Several simple
questions were first asked and the stu
dents allowed In each case ono-half minute
to consider and writo the answer. They
were also requested to assign the conf
dence which they folt in tho correctness of
their answer. The first question was,
what was the weather u week ago today?"
The answers were pretty equally distrbut-
cd over all kinds of weather which nro pos
siblo at tho beginning of March. OF the
90 answers 16 may be olassed rs CLEAR"
12 train" Z SNOW" 8 stormy" 6
"cloudy" and partly stormy and partly
clear. ION the day In question 1t showed
in the morning and cleared in tho late aft
crnOOD.) III bcclis tnuU an uNtTuSo Inhii
with n moderate time for reflection cannot
state much better what tho weather was n
week ago than what 1t will be II week
hence. Yet this is question that might
naturally DO asked in n court of justice.
An INSCRIPTIONS attorney can discredit
the statements of truthful witness by
cunningly selected questions. The jury,
or at lcost tho judge, should know low far
al h..tx
they vary under different conditions.
When asked "Whnt was the weather two
weeks agoY" 20 students answered "clcar
and Is STORMY" Tho confidence in this
case was slight, only two being sure that
their answers were correct and eight hay
ing some confidence, while tho Others were
doubtful or did not answer Mt all. Three
questions were asked with Il view TO learn
ing tho ordinary accuracy Of observations
"Do chestnut trees or oak trees lose their
leaves tho earlier in the autumn" "Do
horses in tho field stand with head or tail
to tho windS" ain what direction do tho
seeds of an apple pointf" The 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
III tlIp butulllD hilt NtTN Va
opinion; "a students thought that horses
in tho Geld stand with tails to the wind,
and 10 thought they stand facing 1t. Thus
in only about thrco cases out of five will u
college student answer such q question
correctly.
Each class OF persons would Of course
have o different index Of precision. In
tho present cases country boys would prob
OF l,, Il hate L., h,r
os 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, ctc9
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
wcro somewhat or quito doubtful in all 20
times, and in these cases wero correct 81
times, scarcely moro than 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 arc nearly always sure
that thoy arc right, whereas Others whose
uCClSlOD IL tpUullI VT IllDTC W Dt
correct arc much less confident. In other
and more elaborate experiments l have
found that when an observer Is entirely
doubtful, for example, ns to which Of two
weights Is tho heavier and makes guess,
his guess is moro likely to DO right than
wrong. This opens an opportunity for
determining tho part played by subcon-
scious Inference in tho decisions of daily
tn, Lao. nINn l.,
face.
AS regards tho direction in which tho
seeds in an apple point, "a answers were
upward, or toward STEM" Is toward
contcr,' ID downward" and thrco tout
ward" Tho reader may be left to decide
whether or not no knows in what direction
tho seeds, In fact point, and what infor
nation ho can obtain from these answers.
Three questions were asked intended to
determine tho average accuracy in esti-
mating weight, distance and timo. These
wero tho weight of tho textbook (James'
"Bricfcr Course" in psychology used by
tho class, the distance between two build
ings on tho college grounds and tho timo
usually taken by students to walk from
tho entrance door Of tho building to tho
door of tho lecture room. In these cases
piicro NuS - 'iiurhcu tSHutiioy " ulucTtSti-
mate weight and to overcstimate time.
Length was ovorestimated, but to u less
degree. For tho magnitudes used tho
average variation was abo1t one-third Of
the weight and ono-half Of tho distance or
time. Tho actual errors were larger In
tho case Of weight and time, but not in
the case Of distance. Tho middle estimate,
or median value, Is in all cases smaller
than tho average. Tho degree of conil-
dence Of tho observer does not in these
cases seem to measure objective accuracy.
Science.