Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-08-31
THE QUESTION OF TRUTH.

Professor Muensterberg' S experiments
for the purpose of ascertaining how
widely people differ in their judy
ment concerning the impressions they
receive through their various senses
are very interesting. They prove the
difficulty of steering clear of all err
rors. even when there is an honest
desire to have but the truth. II people
generally knew themselves-their linn
itations as well as their capabilities
there would be greater circumspection
and fewer grave mistakes In life;
there would also be more charity IN
the Judgment of others.
Professor Mueusterberg proves IN
the September number of McClure's
that perfectly honest and truthful per-
sons may, on the witness-stand, testify
to directly contradictory statements in
regard to the same occurrence. He
tells of an incident illustrating the
fact that the same sound may strike
different listeners very differently.
He asked class of students to de-
scribe a certain sound they would
hear and to say from what source it
came. The sound which he produced
was the tone of d large tuning-fork.
which he struck with a little ham
mer below the desk, invisibly to the
students. The professor says:
Among the one hundred students
whose papers / examined for this re-
ntix txaFn VN.h
nized ii us tuning-fork tone. All
the other Judgments took 1t for bell,
or an organ-pipe, or muffled gong,
or bra2en instrument. or q horn, or
a cello string, or a violin, and so on.
or they compared il with as different
noise as she growl of lion, steam-
whistle. a fog-horn, "a tly-wheel hui
man song, and what not The descrip-
ton, on the other hand, called II,
soft, mellow, humming. deep, dull
solemn, resonant. penetrating. full,
rumbling. clear, low; but then again,
rough, sharp whistling and so on
Again l insist that every one knew
beforehand that he was to observe the
tone which / announced by q signal.
How much more would the Judgments
have differed If the tone had come In
unexpectedly "a tone which even
now appeared so soft TO some and 50
and like a whistle to his neighbor.'
Another experiment is hardly less
striking. Prof. Muensterberg asked the
class to compare the size OF the full
moon, as seen in the sky, TO some object
held In the hand at arms length. He
explained the question carefully, and
said that they were to describe an OBJ
ject just large enough, when seen a
arms length, to cover the whole full
moon. The replies were very much a
variance with each other. The PROBES
sor says:
My list OF answers begins as follows
quarter OF a dollar; fairsized canta'
loup at the horizon, large dinner-plate
overhead, desert-plate; my watch; si'
inches in diameter; silver dollar hun
bred times as large az my watch; man.
head fifty-cent piece; nine inches y
diameter; grape fruit carriage wheel
| butter plate; orange; ten feet; two
| inches one-cent piece; school-roon
clock; a pea; soup-platei fountain-pen
lemon-pie: palm of the hand; thre'
feet in diameter: enough 70 show
again, the overwhelming manifoldnes
| of the Impressions received. To tn,
surprise OF my readers, perhaps, 1t ma!
| he added at once that the only mar
who was right was the one who com
! pared IL 90 a pea. II IL most probable
| that the results would not have beer
| different II | had asked the question
! on a moonlight night with the full mooi
overhead. The suLs.itution ok the
| memory image for the immediate per
| ception can hardly have impaired tn
! correctness Of the Judgments. IL In an,
court the size OF a distant object wer
| TO be given by witnesses. and one MAJ
declared It as large as a pea and tn
second as large as n lemon-pie ant
the third ten feet IN diameter II wouli
hardly he fair 10 form an obJectiv
Judgment I'LL the psychologist ha'
found out what kind or mind wa
producing that estimate"
That It Is difficult 10 soour
an accurate account OF any oc
currence is clear from the FOL
| lowing testimony regarding an &C
cident. Before the court one Of In
witnesses, who had sworn TO tell 9TH
whole truth, and nothing but IN
truth" declared that the entire roa
was dry and dusty; the other swor
that It had ralned and the road wa
muddy The one said that the automo
bilo was running very slowly; the otho
that he had never seen an automobil
rushing more rapidly. The FIRST swor
that there were only two or three peopl
on tho village road the other that
large number OF mon women and chil
dron were passing by. And both wit
nosses were honorable. and APPARENT
trustworthy. They only testified +
what they thought was true.
The New York Evening sun tells o
a similar case befoe police court
The driver Of AN automobile was ac
oused OF having exceeded tho speed lin