The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-03-02
TESTS OF MEMORY
A New and Fascinating Field of In
vcstigatiOn-The Powers of OdOrs
the MiMd-HOw Music Can BE
Men-A Wonderful Case of SuE-
EeSted MemOry-PeOple Do Not Re-
member Their Dead Relatives.

The professors in the department of psy
chology in Cornell college are carrying on
series of experiments, which, in time,
may come to change our conception Of
things material and otherwise. For in
stance one of the board claims, which
seems to be established beyond doubt, that
memory, as we now consider 1t, is an
Illusion. In fine. it is held that man
does not remember his dead and gone rela-
tions-his sisters, his cousins or his aunts;
| that, contrary to the moral of aux Italians.
one is not reminded of bygone events by
the sense of smell; that music, however
reminiscent it may sound, when 1t Is USED
merely as vehicle for memory. From
what can be gathered from the findings OF
Professor Tichener and his assistants You
are reminded of bygone events by other
things which you use as progressive help-
ers, SO to speak, to aid your Jaded IN
| tellect.
To put it palmer, your veteran of the
| late war does not remember the battles
through which he passed The memory OF
the battles stayed with him for. a short
period after they took place. But the de-
tails of the fights became indlstlnct after
4 very short lapse of time. AT the end OF
| a year he would have only a very general
| conception of an engagement. At the end
of two years he would remember not the
engagement ITSELF but his previous mem
DRY of it. At the end of three years ms
l
| remembered at the end of two years, ana
so on until the habit of using his previous
recollections became fixed. Then, as the'
| years roll on, the new happenings OF ms
life crowd out the old ones until the lat
| ter become distorted and, if he examines
| old records he will find that his ideas or
the original battles are very inaccurate.
This sounds like an imperfectly stated
theory of some beginner in science VINO
might wish thus to exploit chance
glimpse into a hitherto unGxplored held
but the observations are borne out py
experiments, and the experiments are con-
! Quoted with Instruments, the RECORDS OF
| which presumably correct. The expert
ments have been extended over a period OF
years The subject tust asked to re-
member an event which had occurred pre-
| vious 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 attention had been removed.
| Even the wall paper offered no glarlnS
contrasts in its color scheme. His second
account of the aforesaid happening was
different ever so slightly from the first
At the end Of given PERIOD another ac-
| count was recorded. Again there was Il
| slight difference. And after Il time it be-
| came evident that the subject was depend
| ing on his previous remembl ances of the
event in question. The inference drawn
| finally was that if the intermediate tests
| had not been Instituted the final test would
| have been even more Inaccurate than it
! was.
| In the meantime, while this test of mem
| DRY of more or less complicated event
| was being carried on, the subject was eX-
| perimented upon in order TO ascertain in
| what degree he could rc"ollect colorS. He
| was placed in a darkened room and a color
| "a shade OF red flashed on screen-was
| shown him. After Il time he asked
| to pick out the shade which had been
| shown to him previously. He could Go SO
| when allowed to compare the shade with
| others. But again he was asked to look
| at Il screen which could be automatically
| graduated so that the very lightest tint of
| red could be almost imperceptibly changed
| to the deepest shade. Failure to detect the
| particular shade III this almost
a foregone conclusion. And 1t was with 4
| like result that series Of notes, struck
! upon q piano. We're tried.
| 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 Il habit of intellectual or
! der. Let us say that always think
of the opera of Faust when the odor
| of violets is present. Doubtless in the
| present while we listened to the opera.
| Now Immediately after this it was a
| natural sequence that we should think
! of the opera when we say the flower.
| 10 see Was to smell. ana 10 smell was
| to connect the odor with the opera. The
| slightest intellectual effort would COM
pete the chain. a few occasions of this
! nature would change the process into
! habit. Often only one occasion is nee
| essary but the process is as much of
the intellect it is of the sense of
| smell, even more So in fact. Referring
| again to Meredith's pCem the process
| might be called the jasmine flower hab-
| it. To show that this habit is intel
| lectual similar experiment is now being
| carried Surrounded by the proper in
| fiuences the subject is being allowed to
| smell an odor which invariably reminds him
| Of certain event of the past Latterly,
| however, this odor is being gradually les
| sened in intensity and another odOr entirely
! different in character is being introduced in
| the room. The subject is never allowed to
| smell the first without the second, and the
| first Will be allowed to finally disappear al
| together. If with this new odor alone the
| subject is finally ren inded of the event
! above mentioned it will show that this odor
| remembrance is merely habit more or less
! mechanical in its action.
| There is not one person in hundred"
| said Huxley, who can describe the COM
| monest occurrence with even an approach
! to accuracy" Later the psychologists go
! farther than this, and assert that almost
| any person, with suitable manipulation can
| be made to believe that they h ave pa, tel
pated in events with which they in re- lity
| could not possibly nave been CONNECTED at
the time of their happenings A cas- in
point was recently reported. Would-be
| penSlOner under the government applied to Il
! man under whom he had served during the
war for confederation of the statement that
he had been injured by a gun carriage
while on the march. The second man denied
any knowledge of the event. Months late
the first brought up the subject again,
but could not convince his former officer
of the truth Of the statement At intervals
covering some years, he repeated the eX-
pertinent, until finally the mind of man No.
= began to WAIVER in favor of man No. l;
and it actually ended in the former signing
affidavit to the effect that he had viii :
| messed the accident. Then, having consld-
| cred the matter further, he wavered again,
| and finally he came to the conclusion that
| what he remembered was not the accident
itself, but the would-be pensioners former
| accounts of it. This after ALL is only an
| abstract confederation of the old saying
| that man needs only to tell a lie su1fi-
! cent number of times IN order to be ttor-
| Oughly convinced that it is true.
| The point of the observations at Cornell
| college is that no one really remembers an
| event itself. The capacity for so doing
| would be a real misfortune to the person
| so equipped in view of all that must be
| crowded into the brain of the average per
| son during his her lifetime The thing
| SINNERS down to a general impression. and
| soon if we do not recharge our mind with
| event itself must perforce at last pass away
frn1 h1f off ,.@.%,