Evening star., 1933-04-14
SCIENTISTS REVEAL
NEW SECRETS OF
HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Alcohol Shuts OFF Part of
Brain, One Report
DiSc!0SeS.
LIE DETECTION METHODS
OUTLINED TO SESSION
Society for Philosophy and Psy.
chclogy Also Told Of Fast and
Slow Glasses of People.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
Important researches in the mocha
nisms of human behavior were reported
| at the opening session Of the Southern
Society for Philosophy and Psychology
at the Wardman Park Hotel today.
The effect of alcohol is much the
same as that of cutting out parts OF
the brain.
This was reported by Wallace B..
Warmer Of Washington and Lee UNI
| inebriated white rats. Before they were
| intoxicated the rats were taught to run
| two mazes-a simple one and COM
plex one The drunken animals, it was
| found, remembered the simple maze
as well as before The complex maze
running was attended with numerous
errors. This is what DR.. Kenneth b.
Lashley OF the University Of Chicago
found recently when he cut away parts
of the frontal lobes of the brains OF
rats. It was only the complex func-
tions that required something akin 70
thinking-not the easy tasks which hao
become matters of habit and were ac-
| complished automatically-that suffered.
VdIIlcI lUullQ dloO kIldb AiAo iooS D.
ually became immune to alcohol. After
repeated experiments some Of them
reached the stage where they could do
about as we'll drunk or sober. The rats
were intoxicated by placing them in
| tank containing alcohol fumes
Lie Detecting Improved.
An improved method Of lie detecting
was reported by DR.. John E. Winter OF
the University of West Virginia.
It is q combination of two old meth
DDS. First IS the word association test.
A person suspected of falsehood listens
to a list Of innocuous words, responding
to each one with the word which comes
first to his mind. Into the list are
introduced few words bearing d.
rectly on the matter concerning which
the subject may be lying. The time
ticularly long for the trap words" or
has various other characteristics guilty
conscience Is indicated.
The other method Is the cardio-
pneumo- -psychogram test. Blood pres
sure and breathing rate can be meas
ured exactly by mechanical means.
Both are increased by emotion. When
person is lying however well he may
conceal his emotion outwardly, he can
not control these unconscious physio-
logical functions.
Both methods are unreliable, since
the tester never can be positive that
the emotions that cause the abnormal
reactions are due to falsehood. Winter
tested q suspects among the college
students by both methods. He found
that the combination was much more
reliable than either of the tests alone.
But even then he caught occasionally
an innocent person and concluded that
the method was not safe for criminal
work.
Attacks Alter Body.
The body es conductor of electricity
Is strangely altered during attacks of
epilepsy, 1t was shown in experiments
reported by j. M Porter, jr, of the
University of Virginia. Porter measured
the total bodily resistance to the pas
sage of a weak electric current in 60
adult epilitics during their flt stages and
during their normal interludes. He
found that the epileptics during their
normal stages had q higher resistance
than is found in normal persons in
general, but that during the fits this
is very much lower. The indication is
plays a prominent, and hitherto un-
suspected, part in the seizures.
One must learn to be lonely. Such
is the implication Of experiments con-
Quoted by Frank A. Pattie of the Rice
Institute of Houston, Tex, on young
chickens. The chicken ordinarily Is
one Of the most gregarious Of animals
and Pattie tried to find out whether
they were born with a social in
stinct"
He placed some chickens away from
the flock as soon as they were Matched.
When they were four days old he placed
separated them from other chickens
and, at other times, from white mice.
He found that the solitary chickens
made no greater effort to reach the
companions of their own kind than they
did to reach the mice. Four day -old
chickens who had been kept with the
flock, however, made strenuous efforts
to reach the other chickens. They had
learned loneliness Pattie concluded
that there was no specific social In
stinct In chicks.
All Humans Divided.
Human beings may be divided into
fast and slow group, reported DR..
Lyle H. Lanier of Vanderbilt University.
The fast" are fast all over and the
slows" are slow all over. DR.. Lanier
tested 35 college students in 10 kinds
of motor reaction familiar in the
psychological laboratory. such as tap
ping. marking lines, naming colors, can
collation., etc.
They split up into the fasts and the
slows Then he tested them for the
unconscious physiological functions,
such as basal metabolism, blood press
ure, pulse rate, breathing rate. The
"fasts" had higher blood pressure,
higher basal metabolism and faster
pulse rate. The Slows" curiously,
showed the fastest breathing rate.
The case of totally color blind man
was reported by DR.. Frank A. Geldard
of the University of Virginia. In
ability to discriminate any colors what
soever is considered an extremely rare
anomaly and DR.. Geldard made extern
siye tests with the man