New-York tribune., 1907-08-27
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERT.

Professor MjinsterberG's article on Nothing
but the Truth in "AIcClure's Magazine" is an
attempt to show that justice would be aided,
especially in criminal trials by the application
in the courtroom of the tests of experimental
psychology. Science would eliminate from tes-
timOny the element of unintentional error and
leave nothing but the truth That unintentional
error on the part Of witnesses makes up CON
siderable part of their testimony and is respon-
sible for a confusion and contradiction of evi-
dence that often puzzles juries is A common
place Jures know that witnesses meaning 10
be honest are liable to mistakes and make al
lowances for them in an ineXact and unscienthc
way Professor Ninsterberg would like to pro
vide an exact and scientific way of testing
witnesses credbity. He would apparently
have a psychological expert at hand to examine
into the power of witnesses TO make accurate
observations.
The professors illustrations of the falibility
of the human powers OF observation are not
particularly novel or striking. 1t is the com
monest human experience that men fail TO take
in an object or an incident Il whole or ac-
curately and that IN detailing what they have
seen they often fail TO agree even on essential
particulars. Thus what Professor Mdnsterberg
relates regarding the errors of his classes in
psychology In observing and reporting certain
tests made by him will hardly surprise any one.
He held UP card with fifty black squares at
IRREGULAR intervals on it for five seconds and
asked the class how many such squares there
were The answers ran all the way from
TWENTY-FIVE to two hundred. No one would ex
pect any other result SO, too, of the time tests.
The class was asked to tell the interval be-
tween two clicks three seconds apart, and the
answers ran all the way from three-fourths OF
q second to q minute. These were typical tests
and the results would hardly surprise even
iury We doubt If any jury would take Sc
riously the testimony OF a witness to the num-
Der of black spots card seen for five sec
onds or If a Jury often considers as any
thing more than a guess the testimony or n
witness regarding the time to the second, the
minute or even the hour eapsing between two
Incidents The Jury knows the fallibility Of tes-
tImony and makes certain common sense allow
ances for IL.
Concerning the results of his experiments
Professor Mtinsterberg asks: might they not
indeed work as a warning against the blind
confidence in the observations of the average
normal man, and might they not reinforce the
demand for more careful study of the individ-
'ual differences between those the witness
"stand?" We doubt if there is any blind CON
"fdence in the observations Of the average
normal man." and we fail to see how the psy-
Geological expert would help the jury to sort
over the testimony and pick out nothing but
the truth Experience with experts in our
trial system has not been happy. The hand
writing expert" and the medical expert" do
not make us long for a new kind We can only
wonder what would happen II. in addition to
the familiar assortment, should have six
or more psychological experts for the de
fence and a similar number for the prosecution,
arrayed against each other, sOemnly explain
ing with much learned verbage their reasons
for thinking on the one hand that the witness
told the truth and the other that he lied. The
hammer and tOngs examination of the learned
psychological experts by counsel on both sides
would be likely to fill everybody with greater
distrust of the trial system than he had ever
felt before.
The place for the psychological expert is
not on the witness stand but in the daily news
,, papers and magazines. We do not see how any
great trial In New York will in the future get
on without him. Along with the literary in
terest' in the great trial. furnished by the
great descriptive writer specially hired for
the occasion, and the "heart interest" touching
ly presented by the chief young lady writer who
usually counsels the loyeIorn, the psychological
interest should be looked after by the ''psy
Geological expert" II Professor Mnnsterberg
has failed, as seems likely to make a perma-
nent contribution to our trial system he has at