The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-19
LIARS WHO THINK
THEY'RE NOT LIARS
A Cornell Contention That Memory ]:
q Brief Possession.
INTERESTING STUDY IN PSYCHOLOGY
Experiments to Prove That After n
Time We Remember Only Our own
ItecolIections OF Events-- Helpful
Distractions.
from the New York Sun.

from the New York Sun.
The professors in the department OF
psychology in Cuinch university are
carving on a series of-experinents.
which, in time, may come to change
our conception oS things material ana
otherwise. For instance, one of the
board contends that memory, as we
now consider it, Is an Huston. In fine,
IL is held that man does not remrn
bcr his dead ard gone relatives--his
sisters, his cousins or his aunts. that,
contrary to the mo-ai of AUX Italien,"
one is not reminded of bygone events
by the sense of smell; that music,
how ever reminiscent it may sound, is
largely a matter of habit, when 1t is
used merely as vehicle for memory
From what can be gathered from the
findings of Professor TiChener and his
assistance you are reminded of bygone
events by other things, which YOU use
as progressive helpers, SO to speak, to
aid your jaded intellect.
To put II palmer, your veteran of the
late war does not remember the battles
through which he passed. The memory
of the battle stayed with him for
short period after they took place. But
the details of the fight became indis-
tinCt after a very short lapse of time.
At the end Of year he would have
only a very general conception of an
engagement. At the end of two years
he would remember not the engage
ment itself, but his previous memory
of 1t. At the end Of three wears his
recollections would revert to what he
had remembered a. the end Of two
years, and 50 on until the habit of us
ing his previous reCollectiOns became
fixed. Then, as the years roll on, the
new happenings of MS life crowd @ut
the old ones, until the latter become
distorted, and, if he examines old
records he will find that his ideas
of the original battles are very inac-
curatc.
EXPERIMENTS.
This sounds like an imperfectly
stated theory of some beginner in
science who might thus wish to exploit
u chance glimpse into a hitherto uneX-
plored field, but the observations are
borne out by experiments and the ex-
reriments are conducted with instru-
ments, the records OF which presum-
ably are correct. The experiments have
been extended over a period of years.
The subject was first asked to remem-
Der an event which had occurred pre-
Vlous to the first test. a careful
record of the account of the events was
made. Later. the subject was placed
in a room from which every object
which might serve to distract his at
tention had heen removed. Even the
wall paper offered no glariny contrasts
, in its color scheme. His second account
{ Of the happening was different, ever so
slightly, from the first. At the end of
ven period another account was re-
core Again there was a slight diff
ference. And after a time it became
evident that the subject was depednG
on his previous remembrances of the
event in question. The inference drawn
was that If the intermediate tests had
not been instituted the final test would
have been more accurate than it was.
In the meantime, while this test of
nemory of a more or less complicated
went was being carried on, the sub
ect is experimental upon in order
ascertain in what degree he could
ft,SSlls sct-cblors. He was placed in a
dalrkened room and a color-a shade of
red flashed on, a screen-was shown to
him. After a time he was asked to
pick out the shade which had been
shown to him previously. He could do
so when allowed to compare the shade
with others. But again he was asked
to look at a screen which could be au-
tomatically graduated, so that the very
lightest tint of red could be almost i'm
perceptibly changed to the deepest
shade. Failure to detect the particu-
lar shade was in this case almost a
foregone conclusion. And it was with
a like result that a series of notes,
struck upon the piano, were tried.
MEMORY AND ODORS.
The experiments with odors are still
being carried on. The idea is to show
that the unconscious remembrance of
anything when a certain odor is smelled
is merely a habit of an intellectual or
der. Let us say that we always think
of the opera Faust" when the odor
of violets is present. Doubtless in the
first instance the odor actually was
present while we listened to the opera.
Now, Immediately after this, it was
simply a natural sequence that we