Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/284

272 in a peasant's house, was made upon children and young people of different ages; and has often been repeated since. The "narrative" resulted in 5-10% of errors; the "interrogatory" in 25-30%. The power of the "suggestive" question showed itself to be dependent in large measure on age 50% of errors in the case of y-year-olds, 20% in that of 1 8-yearolds.

An event-experiment was made in my seminar as follows: My lecture was interrupted by the entrance of a gentleman who spoke with me and took a book from the book-case, the performance having been exactly studied beforehand in all its details. The members of the seminar gave but little attention to what was going on. A week later they were required to report upon what had taken place. Result: "narrative" 25% of errors; "interrogatory" 50% of errors.

4. On the Psychology of the "Narrative" Errors. These errors fall into four groups:

a. Errors of Apprehension, committed during the observation: Overlooking of elements present; misapprehension in consequence of expectation or habituation (falsche Assimilation)', Sense illusions, Errors of estimation.

b. Real Errors of Memory, arising in the interval between the observation and the reporting or in the course of the report: Filling up gaps in recollection in accordance with habit; The use of retained verbal expressions in an altered sense; Gradual amplification of the idea thus, with reference to two trees in a picture the statement in the first report was "two trees," a week later "a grove," a week later still "a forest."

c. Errors of Phantasy: Retouching of the recollection (Aussckmuckung) Unintentional blending of the imagined with the experienced, or of the experiences of different times; In the case of children, often a quite harmless playing with the report, or invention (Fabulieren).

d. Lack of Will: Too great credulity with reference to the ideas which offer themselves; too little self-criticism in the case of uncertain recollections.

5. The Psychology of the Errors in Interrogatory Reports. Beside the errors which have their sources within the reporting subject, there are others which have an outside source, in particular in the interrogation ( Verhor). In one way questioning is an excellent means of filling the gaps in a spontaneous report, but in another it is, as experiments prove, a possible