The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-17
EYES ARE OF TEN
 VERY DECEPTIVE Difficult to Testify to What
 We See SOME EXPERIMENTS Young Men Are Absolutely Unable to Give Correctly Details of Pic lures Shown to Them for
 Brief Period
EXPERIMENTS
rom the New York Independent.

From the New York Independent. . "Seeing is believing" so runs the old adage We sometimes doubt what we hear and with reason, but We are quite sure that our eyes are good witnesses and we do not question what they show us. But now comes the psychologist on the scene and with the erucible of the exper- iment to test the reliability of our every day experiences and to show that there is very little indeed of which we have absolute and certain knowledge.
 The tests ordinarily used in these ex- periments are of two kinds The first is known as the event experiment. A care. fully prepared scene is enacted before a witness, and either immediately or some time after the event he Is asked to recall what he has seen. The event test has been les soften used than the picture test In this latter test picture repre- senting a common scene is shown to tn, subject for brief period, after which ht describes what he has seen.
 The test was first demonstrated il America at Clark university in Septem. Der, 1909, by the pioneer in this field
 
 Bresau. A boy and girl in the upper grammar grades of the Worcester schools were selected as subjects. Each was shown separately for the period of min ute colored picture entitled "The Bauerstube."
 This picture shows the interior of a German peasants home. Among other details is seen a table in the foreground at which a man and boy are seated, while a woman is standing, evidently serving them. The man has removed his coat and his bright red vest is clearly ex- posed to view. The woman wears a bril- liant red skirt over which is blue green apron. Near by is cradle of the same striking blue green as the apron.
 Had not the audience that witnessed the demonstration been able to follow the de- tails of the testimony by means of a re- production of the picture thrown by a lantern on a screen at the back of the children they would have been impressed with the remarkable clearness and ap- parent accuracy of the testimony, partic- ularly with reference to a certain cup board which both testified stood near the foot of the bed. This cupboard was de- scribed minutely with substantial agree
 
 cupboard in the picture, and no piece of furniture that in any way resembled a cupboard. The fiction of the cupboard was developed by few suggestive ques- tions ingeniously put, such as the follow ing: "Is there a cupboard in the room?'' ('fhe reply was "yes.') Where is it?'' How many drawers does if have?"
 The writer has himself carried on this identical experiment with score of sub jects, both adults and children, and has not found one who could give complete ly accurate description of what he has seen.
 Many witnesses do not take the trouble to accurately distinguish between that which they exactly know and that which they vaguely believe. They belong to that type of persons who are always ready to cash in their imagination for actual fact, and they are never quite sure as 10 the difference.
 Witnesses not only follow suggestions both on and off the stand. but many readily yield to the temptation to show off and appear smart. They often try to please the questoner, and strive to prove that they know what they are talking about. A skillful attorney always takes advantage of this amable but dangerous weakness, and the result is that he often gets just the thing that he is after by a little hattery. This method when em- ployed with children always leads to d distortion of the truth.
 While there Is no absolute remedy for al these errors in reporting there are cer- tain obvious precautions that may be taken to reduce them to minimum Perhaps the most important of all is to get the witness as soon after the event as possible. Questions asked should always be by a disinterested person. Such one might have an official court position and be specially designated to conduct the ex- animation. The error should not be made of supposing that the police furnish a