The Oregon daily journal., July 26, 1908, Page 26, Image 26

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PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY HORNING, JULY 26, 1908
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T IV AS near the close of a celebrated
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m muiuer iriai una me accmea w V'yyGc
Jtfd testifying it his own behalf.
Dark, indeed, seemed the case against t4"
u'm; jo seemingly direct and entirely dam
aging zvas the evidence produced by the result of his peculiar mental processes.
prosecution that the prisoner's lawyer and A great many persons, no doubt, fail to
t i i . , , j i . 'n c appreciate the forceof the old saying, that cir
frtends had abandoned hope, virtually. So cunlstantial eyidence( inked up in strong chains,
no objection was interposed when a famous is the strongest kind of evidence. They would
scientist requested permission to test the prefer the testimony of eye witnesses.
prisoner's story by the new method of ex- t.An( yet e?ery man who has studied the
' .11) subject knows that a half dozen people, looking
ferttnental psychology. at the same thing at the same time, are likely
11 seemea extremely simple, mac tesi to describe it in a half dozen different ways.
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t'y.
so simple that scarcely a person in the
crowded court roon, understood what was
Some were positive that the man was smoothly
shaven, wore a hat; and was standing. Others
were equally positive that he had a f ull beard,
wore no hat, and was sitting on a bench.
Some time' ago Professor Munsterberg con
ducted an interesting test with the students of
bis class in Harvard. Taking part were several
hundred young men, most of them between 20
and 23 years old.
He showed them a large sheet of white
ing evidence along this line has been collected
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going on. Ovly a list of some one hundred Univer9ity and rently publishd in his book
words called off by the prisoners law- called "On the Witness Stand: Essays on Psy-
yer from a slip of paper handed him by chology and Crime."
the man of science. Th-r prisoner was re- OBSERVERS ALL VARY
quested to respond as promptly as possible
to each word with the idea it 'brought into . From "ot" covering cases during a number
hii mind years. Professor Munsterberg has drawn a
,' . . number of interesting incidents, all tending-to
At the end of the test the scientist 6how the unreliability of memory and the falli-
bowed to the prosecuting attorney. The bihty of direct testimony.
A great deal of entertaining and convinc- cardboard, on which he had pasted fifty little
man is innocent," he said.
"But what of the testimony of these
witnesses? responded the astonished prose
cutor. "Some of them virtually saw the
crime committed."
"Few witnesses," replied the man of
science gravely, "tell the xihole truth upon
the witness stand, no matter how conscien
tious they may be or what their honesty of
purpose. Many innocent men are being
continually convicted upon testimony hon
estly given, but entirely wrong."
He tells of an automobile accident which
brought the persons concerned into court. The
witnesses had no interest in the matter, except
to tell 6imply the whole truth.
One swore that the road was dry and dusty,
the other that it had been raining and that the
road was muddy. One declared that the auto
mobile waa running slowly, the other that it
was going as fast as any automolile hs had ever
seen. One declared that there were only two
or three persona on the villagb road, others that
a large number of men, women and children
were passingfllong.
All the witnesses in the ease were highly fifteen seconds,
black sauarea in irreffular order. lhis was'
exposed to view for five seconds, and the
6tudents were asked to write how many black
spots were on the sheet.
The answers varied between twenty-five and
COO. There were more answers of over 100 than
there were below fifty. Yet every student except
three felt able to give a positive statement, and
was reasonably certain his statement was correct.
Here, then, were highly trained, careful ob
servers, whose attention was concentrated on
the subject at hand. Is it any wonder that un
trained, casual observers so frequently make
conflicting statements in court I
A number of other students were asked to
give the time, in seconds, which passed between
two loud clicks. The time was ten seconds, and
the answers varied between half a second and
sixty seconds. A great man. of the students
judged forty-five seconds to be the correct time.
STUDENTS FAR FROM EXACT
The experiment was repeated, with three
seconds elaDsinir between the clicks. This time
the answers varied between half a second and
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KLY an imaginary court scene is the
above, because, under existing systems
of jurisprudence, such a test, conduct
ed in such a way, would probably be
deemed irregular; and yet it would bring mora
dearly before the public mind than anything
else the extreme weakness of so-called dirct
testimony in the witness box.
Indeed, the most important question raised
respectable, reputable people, having, as stated,
do personal interest in the tiatter at issue.
' Another court case was the outcome of a
riot in a halL and it was essential to ascertain
the number of persons gathered there. Only
forty had bcn invited.
Some of the witnesses insisted that there
were not more than twenty persons present.
Others were jut as positire that they saw more
than a hundred.
In a Bowery fight, one witness declared
tat a rowdy had beaten his companion over the
by uooern psychologists is not "Do we sieaJt KA if, . k. u. v.u v-
Jb6,?S.InXthr we tb ho1 tand. Others said the two, were separated by
trutir Because, with the most honest mtcs- table, and that the mu? haOi been hurled
tiong possible, a person may tell, under oatU, through the air six or seven feet,
what .city U rery far from actual fact. Some raenm on a railrrs4 train wit
It iLey not be his fault at all. lut simply -jiccd tlo Irutal whipping of child by a num.
At another time Professor Munsterberg ex
perimented with direct comparisons by the eye.
He had on the platform a large clock with a
white dial, over which one black pointer moved
once around in five seconds.
He made the clock go for r. minute, asked
the observers to watch carefully the rapidity of
the hand, and to describe, by comparisonwith
max ing objects, its speed. Th.' list of responses
included the f ollowirg ideas :
Man walking tlowly.
An acrommodJitton train.
Man riding a blcrcl.
Trotting dog-.
An lctrto car.
An iprma train.
UoldSah la water.
Tha fasteat automoM! tptti. "
Aa,lowljr aa a analL
And the different answers, too, were given
by intelligent young men of training and habits
of observation.
Professor Munsterberg bears testimony to
his own unreliability as a witness. While he was
away from the city with his family during the
summer his home was entered by burglars, and
when the latter were captured he was called
into court as a witness.
He declared, under oath, that the burglars
had entered his house through a cellar winifow,
and told of the rooms they had visited. "To
prove," he said, "in answer to a direct question,
that they had been there at night, I told that I
had found drops of candle wax on the second
floor. To show that they intended to return, I
reported that they had left a large mantel
clock, packed in wrapping paper, on the dining
room table. Finally, as to the amount of
clothes that they had taken. I asserted that the
burglars did not get more than a certified list,
which I had given the police.
"Only a few days later I found that every
one of these statements was wrong. They had
not entered through the window, but hSd broken
the lock of the cellar door. The clock was not
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"How did all these mistakes occur I I have
no right to excuse myself on the plea of a bad
memory. During the last eighteen years I hava
delivered about 3000 university lectures. For
those 3000 coherent addresses. I had not onca a'
single written or printed line, or any notes, on
the platform, and yet there has nerer been a
moment wLen I have had to stop for a sama or
fr the connection of a thought.
"Of course, I had act made any careful
examination of the house. I !id rushed in from 5
the seashore as toon as the poli.e had notified i
me. in triA fear it 1ti.M k i .
packed cy Tnera in wrapping paper, dui in ft house might hare been destroyed or plundered,
tablecloth. The candle droppings were not on When I sw that they had treated cm mildly. I '
the second floor, but in the attic. The list of had taken only ft nperficial snrrey. . , J
lost garments was to be increased by seven mora "That a clock was lying en' the tar !, rsrkf J j
pieces. While my story, v under oath, spoka rea3y to be taken away, had ircrwed iUf '.f ea '
always of two burglars, I do not know that there my mind. But that it vas paLJ in a ti:-
waa mora than one. icoittixceo on tsr.vs nsx:i