The range of report is, therefore, large, but the fidelity is relatively small, since the following erroneous statements appear (those italicized are attested statements): "The picture is 14x14 inches. The man on the right is bald, wears spectacles, has his right hand on a paper, wears a collar, a purple tie, black trousers, and slippers. The man on the left is thinking hard, has a troubled expression, wears a sandy mustache: he has his right hand in his pocket, his left on his knee: he wears a light-colored vest and brown trousers. The room is lighted by a candle which stands on the pile of books. There is a pen in the inkwell. The table is fourteen feet long, has a lightcolored cloth top with fringe of a different color. There are three chairs in the room, the rocker being at the left. The umbrella is dark blue in color and lies on the floor. There is a coat on the floor in front of the table; there is a basket on the table. The satchel is shut. One window is visible. There is a chair at the extreme right of the picture. The wall is white. (The cuspidor and the newspaper are not recalled.)"

General Results of Tests of Report. (1) Accuracy. The chief single result of the "Aussage" psychology is that an errorless report is not the rule, but the exception, even when the report is made by a competent S under favorable conditions. Thus in 240 reports, Miss Borst found only 2 per cent errorless narratives and 0.5 per cent errorless depositions. The average S, when no suggestive questions are employed, exhibits a coefficient of accuracy of approximately 75 per cent. (2) Range and accuracy. There is no general relation of range to accuracy, though, for a given S, it is doubtless true that there is an inverse relation between these two coefficients.1... (4) Accuracy and attestation. Generally speaking, attestation does not guarantee accuracy on the contrary, though the number of errors is nearly twice as great in unsworn as in sworn testimony (according to Stern, 1.82 times, according to Borst, 1.89 times as great), there still remains as high as 10 per cent error in sworn testimony. These relations are shown clearly in Table 44. (5) Dependence on sex. In all of Stern's work, both in narratives and depositions, with pictures, or events, or estimations of times and distances, whether under oath or not, the reports of men have been more accurate (by from 20 to 33 per cent), though less extended, than those of women, and a similar sex difference has appeared in tests of school children. This superior accuracy of boys becomes more evident when the report is difficult to make. Stern's conclusions have, however, been criticized by both Wreschner and Miss Borst. Wreschner found that among adults women did better than men. Miss Borst likewise found women superior to men in accuracy and range, but inspection of her results shows that the superiority of women consisted in the fact that they returned a larger number of correct statements, and that the men did not make less accurate statements in their more limited reports. (6) Dependence on age. The reports of children are in every way inferior to those of adults: the range is small, the inaccuracy large, and, since the assurance is high, the warranted assurance and reliability of assurance are both very low. During the ages 7 to 18 years, the range, especially the range of knowledge, increases as much as 50 per cent, but the accuracy,

1 The reason for this lack of general relation between range and accuracy is presumably that there are two kinds of good witnesses the one possesses good capacity of observation, recall and report, and hence exhibits a large range and a high degree of accuracy; the other is cautious, and therefore restricts his range, which may be poor at best.

save in the deposition, does not increase as rapidly (20 per cent). This development of capacity to report is not continuous, but is characterized by rapid modification at the age of puberty. The one factor that more than any other is responsible for the poor reports of children is their excessive suggestibility, especially in the years before puberty. (7) Dependence on intelligence. We have as yet no conclusive experiments upon the relation between accuracy of report and general intelligence. (8) Defectives. The reports of defectives, paralytics, epileptics, the insane, etc., show, as one might expect, a very high degree of inaccuracy, even when the pathological condition is not seriously developed. Such persons are also highly suggestible (de Placzek). (9) Dependence on time interval. Lengthening of the time interval between experience and report exerts, as one might expect, a generally unfavorable influence, but there is nothing like the loss in efficiency shown in curves of memory for nonsense syllables, as in the familiar tests of Ebbinghaus indeed, for some S's the report seems to be somewhat improved after several days have elapsed, and, in general, the conditions are so complex as to demand further special investigation. (10) Dependence on contents or features. Not all the features of the original experience are reported with the same frequency or with the same accuracy: there is rather a process of selection, both in the process of observation, and also, probably in memory and in the formulation of the report. In general, we may say, that persons and their acts, objects, things, and spatial relations are reported with considerable accuracy (85-90 per cent), whereas secondary features, especially quantities and colors, are reported with considerable inaccuracy (reports on color have an error of from 40 to 50 per cent).1 ... (13) Dependence on the ideational type of the reporter. The best reports are given by observers of a mixed ideational type, e.g. acoustic motor or visual motor (Borst): even in a picture test, the purely visual-minded observer is inferior, though less open to suggestion (Lobsien). A characteristic analysis of reports, for the purpose of classifying reporters into ideational types has been given in the description-of-an-object test (No. 31), in which Binet distinguishes four types of reporter - the observer, the describer, the emotionally minded, and the erudite. . .. (14) The effect of repeating a report. When S is called upon to make his report several times, the effect of this repetition is complex, for (a) it tends in part to establish in mind the items reported, whether they be true or false, and (b) it tends also to induce some departure in the later reports, because these are based more upon the memory of the verbal statements of the earlier reports than upon the original experience itself, i.e. the later reports undergo distortion on account of the flexibility of verbal expression. (15) The effect of practice. Simple practice in reporting, even without special training or conscious effort to improve, facilitates and betters the report, as is shown in Table 47, from Miss Borst. It will be noted that the tendency to attestation and oath are both particularly improved by practice, and that there is also an appreciable improvement in range, accuracy, warranted assurance, and reliability of assurance, whereas assurance and accuracy of assurance are scarcely affected. Similar practice effects may be discerned in the deposition. From these results, it is clear that the several coefficients of report may vary more or less independently.

1 [For the summaries here numbered 11 and 12, dealing with the effect of suggestive interrogatories, see ante, No. 257. - Ed.]

291. KANSAS UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT. (Wм. A. M'KEEVER. Psychology in relation to Testimony. Kansas Bar Association Proceedings. 1911. p. 113.)

As a means of testing the actual worth of eyewitnesses to a tragic act, I recently planned to stage a little drama of one act in the presence of a class of twenty-five junior and senior psychology students. It was arranged that at a given moment, without any warning to the members of the class, three men should burst into the room and go through the movements of a "holdup," of a running fight. The act had been carefully rehearsed under my personal direction, and I am satisfied that each actor carried out his part very accurately. The parts enacted and the personal "makeup" of each one was carefully recorded in a notebook.

The participants in the act rushed into the room to a distance of 25 or 30 feet, then, pausing for a moment, ran out. Jones, the first to enter, was to have the appearance of being hotly pursued by Smith and White. As they left the room the pursuers changed the order of their places. While all were, of course, acting at the same time, each of the three and the instructor as well had time to recite his oral part in succession. After the players had left the room I turned immediately to the class, the most of whom were visibly ex

cited, and enjoined silence while the paper was passed and their written testimonies were asked for under the headings given below. From the twenty-five papers I copied verbatim the many inaccuracies given in the accounts printed with this. The correct statements were much fewer than the incorrect ones.

In an actual criminal trial the testimony would perhaps be most unfair and damaging in the case of Smith. Although entirely unarmed, and inoffensive in his statements, yet three witnesses testified that he carried a revolver, snapped it several times at Jones, or that he cried, "Stop, or I'll shoot!" White, on the other hand, who carried a revolver minus the cylinder, was little noticed. There was even more confusion of the testimony as to the wearing apparel of the participants, as is clearly indicated.

Whatever may be said as to the results of this little experiment, it is my opinion that it represented very satisfactorily a true and natural situation, and that the testimonies of the eyewitnesses were no less and no more accurate than if the scene had been enacted upon the stage of real life.

VARIATIONS OF THE STUDENTS' TESTIMONY
Jones' Appearance

Tall man; hat on; black mask over eyes, nose, and mouth; gray raincoat; salt bag half full of nails in left hand; small monkey wrench in right hand; streak of red paint across left cheek.

Testimony

1 Black coat; light-colored mask. 2 Red mask; cheeks painted red. 3 Black coat; mouth painted red. 4 Carried pistol.

5 Cheeks more than natural redness; club in his hand; dark suit. 6 Dark suit.

7 Dark suit.

8 Black clothes.

9 Red mask on; black clothes.

10 Hatless.

11 Dressed in blue suit and hand

kerchief around his neck. Medium sized; bare-headed.

12 Red mask.

292. ARNO GUNTHER. A Dramatic Incident as reported by Witnesses and Reconstructed by a Jury. (Beiträge zur Psychologie der Aussage. 2d Series, 1905-1906, pt. 4, p. 33.)