The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-10-02

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with this country In the heavy,
headache making magazines, and is
now turning his attention to mat
tiers more attractive in lighter pub
lications.
For some time he has been maxi
ing experiments to determine the
ouickness and accuracy Of pcrcep-
ton of the average individual. In
these tests he has used several hun
dred Of the Harvard boys and as
they come from all sections OF
the country, all glasses of society
and represent many natiomlities,
the material couldn't be better.
The main object of Professor
Munsterberg work was to arrive
nj some scientific conclusion as to
the variability of human testimony
especially in cases in court where
property. human freedom and even
human life were at stake. Men
and women Of good repute, WIT
NOSES of the same event, have tes-
tified at right angles to each other.
No one dorbted their honesty or
tbc;r truth. and 80 the kindly YER
diet has been that thc memory play
ed tricks. ,.
This is denied by Professor Nuns
o,hory His reason is entirely OPP
nosite. These people differ IN the,r
statements because they diifer III
,hc;r nowers of observation. They
tell ,ruthfully what they sec, bu.
,hev see wrong. The power OF
aeou,ate observation is given TO
very few; the overwhelming pulk
of mankind cannot be trusted 70 see
largely CT clearly.
J In an article in the september
| McClure's the Harvard professor
publishes the results of a number
of his tests. Sight and the hearing
wore mt on trial. The variations
os orin;on seem incredible. Testing
the sense of time, the students
we're asked to- give the time DC
tween two clicks which were sep
arated by ten seconds. One man
said three fcurths of second: 'ne
one at the other extreme SAID u
minute. To test the sense OF rapia
motion. black pointer was moved
around a white dial in live seconos
The students were to make com
nar;sons with ether moving "D-
iects. One said, it went like a
snail: some one else that its speed
was that Of an express tram,
Several gave speed one hundred
times as high as the actual move
ment.
Then to sliow how easily the eye
can be directed to certain spot
and focused there, in utter obliv-
liousness of other places well with
lin its range. Professor Munsterberg
took his place on high platform
behind low desk and begged the
spectators to observe everything
he did. He held o running disk
lin his right hand as high as his
head. This constantly changed col
ors. He kept his eyes constantly
upon it and the hundreds of stu
dents gued their eyes to it, also.
Then. with his left hand, he took
cut his watch and laid it on the
table. He slipped out his pencil
and wrote "a message on tab of
Ipaper on the desk. He took out his
cigarette case, opened it, removed
La cigarette, closed the case with
la loud click and put it back in
his pockt. All these things were
done with bravado. He wished
the pupils to- see his actions. Yet
siehteen out N hundred saw
lncthing at all.
(, This is the experience of the
sleight-of hand man who does pal
pablc things without discovery right
under the noses Of his audiences.
because they are watching what
he is looking at.
In view OF the results of these
experiments, the public, and es-
pecially lawyers fighting zeal
ously for their clients, must have
more charitable judgment over
radical oppositions of testimony.
The man who says he saw the mur-
der committed with knife and
the other witness who swears il
was done with a revolver may both
he telling the truth as they saw
I 1t Cleveland Teader