Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1896-03-22
TRICKS OF MEMORY.
TESTS OF THE RELIABILITY OF REC.
OBJECTION AT COLUMBIA.
Question That Is ortsn Asked In Court
Trials That Ia Not Always Easily An
swered correetiy-Laoh OF Accuracy of
tho Memory In Common ocourrenoes

Triais That Ia Not Always Eaaity An
swercd correetiy--Iaok Of Accuracy of
the Memory In Common Occurrence.
have tried In various ways to secure q
1uantitativo determination Of tho rollnbil.
lily OF recollection and evidence and will
here report on tho answers 10 some qucs-
lions asked the junior class in psychology
In Columbia college In March, 1898 Tho
questions wore answered In all or In part
by tho 90 students present. Several simple
questions woru FIRST asked and tho stu.
dents allowed In zach case ono .hnf minute
10 consider and writu the answer. They
wore also requested to assign tho conil.
donoo which they iclt in the correctness of
their answer. Tho FIRST question was,
"What was tho weather "a wcnk aao todayi
The answers were pretty equally distrihut-
ed over all kinds OF weather which arc pos.
slblo nj tho beginning OF March. OF the
90 answers 10 may ho chased ms "clcar. -
la rain" Snow stormy" o
"olondy" and partly stormy and partly
clear. ION tho dag in question II showed
In tho morning and cleared In tho late aft.
crnoon.) 1t seems that an average mau
with moderate timo for reflection cannot
state much better what tho weather was a
week ago than what II will 10 week
hence. Vet thls Is u question that might
naturally DO asked In court " Justice.
An INSCRIPTIONS attorney can dlsarcdlt
the statements Of truthful witness by
ounningly selected questions Tho Jury,
or at least the judge, should know how far
errors In recollection arc normal and how
they vary undor different conditions.
When asked what whs the weather two
weeks aeol" 20 students answered "clcnr
and is stormy Tho confidence In this
case was slight, only two being sure that
their answers were correct aud eight hav-
ing soma confidence, while tho Others worr
doubtful or did not answer nj nll Three
questions wore asked with view 20 lcarn.
ing the ordinary accuracy Of observation;
"Do chestnut trees or oak trees l1so their
leaves the oarlior In tho nutnmnFh ." Do
horses In the field stand with head or tail
TO tho windfi I'm what direction do tho
seeds Of np apple polnti" Tho quostinns
were I'LL answered correctly moro often
than incorrectly, but only by moderate
majority Thus 80 studonts thought that
chestnut trees lcsp their leaves tho earlier
In the autumn, and . were OF the oppos!tn
opinion; IS Htudouts thought that horses
In tho ilolh stand with tails 60 thu wind,
aud 10 thought They stand facing IT, Thus
In Gully about three easos out OF five viii
college student answer such II question
correctly.
Ench class Of persona would Of oourro
have diiicn,nt index Of precision In
the prcsnni cases country boys would prob,
ably do hettor, whereas In other directions,
as In judging OF character, they might not
do 50 we'll This opens up an interesting
direction Of research Is tho ordinary oh.
scrvatlon " mon or women better, OF stu,
donts In classical or sciuntifo COURSES otoi
Tho dcgrcn Of confidence may DO noticed
The students woro sure their answers woro
correct in nil "a times, and In those cases
they were IN faat corront ~ times They
wero somewhat or quite doubtful In oil 20
tmoE, aud In these cases wero correct "a
times scarcely mora than a majority
Their Judgment Of tbuir own accuracy was
therefore Of some value, and the degree OF
confidence can with advantage he takon IN
ordinary testimony. But thore In great
individual Difference In this respect
Some observers arc nearly always surc
that thoy arc right, whereas others whose
decision IL equally or moro likely Ia DO
correct aro much less confident, In other
md moro elaborate experiments | hive
found that whcu an observer IL eniiroly
doubtful, for example, az TO which Of two
Weights Is tho heavier and makes guess,
his guess Is moro likely 10 bo right than
wrong. This opens an opportunity for
determining tho part played by eubcon-
eclous inference in tho decisions OF daily
life, as In Judging tho character from tho
face.
AS regards tho direction in which tho
seeds In an apple point, 20 answers were
upward, " or toward stem;" lS"toward
oenlur, 10 downward and three "out'
ward Tho reader may be left to decide
whether or not ho knows In whnt direction
tho soods, In fact, point, md what infor'
nation he can obtain from these answers.
Three questions worc asked intended TO
determine tho average accuracy In csti'
mating weight, distance and time Thoso
were tho weight Of tho textbook tJames'
"Driefm Couno" In Psychology used by
tho Glass, the dlstnnoo between two build
ings on tho college grounds and the time
usually taken by studoDts To walk from
tho entrance door Of tho building TO tbs
door OF the lecture room. In these oase9
there was marked tendency To undcrcsti-
mnto weight aud TO oyorcstimato time.
Length was overestim8tsd, but TO 10 lees
degree. For tho magnitudos used tho
average variation was about ono third Of
the weight and onohnlf Of tho distance or
time Tho actual errors woro larger In
tho case OF weight aud time, hut not IN
tho cnso OF distance. The middle ostlmnte,
or mcdlan value, 10 In all cases smaller
thnn tho average. Tho degree of eonil-
dcnce Of tho observer does not In these
eases SOON to measure objective accuracy.