Volume 2
Manual of mental and physical tests : in two parts a book of directions compiled with special reference to the experimental study of children in the laboratory or classroom / by Guy Montrose Whipple.
- Guy Montrose Whipple
- Date:
- 1921
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Manual of mental and physical tests : in two parts a book of directions compiled with special reference to the experimental study of children in the laboratory or classroom / by Guy Montrose Whipple. Source: Wellcome Collection.
41/358 page 31
![visible. There is a cbair at the extreme right of the picture. The wail Is white. (The cuspidor aud the newspaper are not recalled.) General Results of Tests of Report.— M) 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 8 under favorable conditions. Thus, in 240 reports, Miss Borst found only 2 percent, errorless narratives and 0.5 per cent, errorless depositions. These errorless reports are commonly characterized by very small range, i. c., they are reports of ^’s who are extremely cautious and state only what they are certain of. For certain types of material, particularly estimates of time, space, number, etc., not only are erroneous reports the rule, but the most common single answer is more likely wrong than right (Dauber). The average 8> when no suggestive questions are employed, exhibits a coefficient of accuracy of approximately 75 per cent. ; 12) Range and accuracy. There is no general relation of range to accuracy, though, for a given 8, it is doubtless true that there is an inverse relation between these two coefficients.12 (3) Range and other constants. There is no general paral¬ lelism between range of report and other coefficients which de¬ pend upon degree of assurance. TABLE 50 Comparativc Accuracy of Sworn and Unsworn Statements (Stern and Borst) EXPJ-:RIMFNTER. STERN STERN STERN BORST 1 Range j Errors Range Errors Range Errors Range Errors . Positive statements— Sworn statements——] Unsworn statements— Certain statements_ Uncertain statements. (100) 76 24 13.6 11 20 (100) 68 32 19 2 (100) 70 30 23 14 (100) 60 40 97.5 2.5 11.0 8.2 15.5 10.1 44.0 Role,—All figures are In per cents. The results, save those of the third and fourth columns, refer to narratives, not depositions. KThe reason for this lack cf general relation between range and accu¬ racy is presumably that there are two kinds of good witnesses—the one possesses good capacity of observation, recall and report, and hence exhib¬ its a large range and a high degree of accuracy ; the other is cautious and therefore restricts his range, which may be poor at best.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29817407_0002_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)


