MOCK FIGHT IN A CLASS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3619, 24 July 1923, Page 47

MOCK FIGHT IN A CLASS.

HUMAN FALLIBILITY. A CURIOUS EXPERIMENT. Human fallibility was demonstrated in a remarkable manner by Professor Milton Schlagenhauf, head of the department of psychology at the North-Eastern University, Boston, before a class of 50 advanced students of psychology. While a lecture was in progress two students engaged in a fight, secretly arranged by the professor without the knowledge of the rest of the class. Suddenly a shot was heard, and one student dropped to the floor, while the other fled. The class was in an uproar, but Professor Schlagenhauf quieted the students and told them lo write immediately a description of what had occurred. As a matter of fact the shot was fired out of sight in an adjacent room by a concealed attendant, while the student who was supposed to havp fired it really held a banana in his hand. Nevertheless. 47 students insisted that they saw a revolver in tire student’s hand, and some declared that they saw the flash and the smoke. Descriptions of the dress of the two students varied widely, and versions of the words used by them during the “tight” before the shooting were equally incorrect. One student attempted to give the exact time, saying that he took out his watch for the purpose. Ke was an hour wrong, owing to his nervousness when glancing at the watch. Another student gave the date of the shooting four days wrong. Professor Schlagenhauf staged the demonstration after taking his class to a I court, where a « it.ness swore that he could describe everything that happened in three minutes during a burglary. Hie professor afterwards told bis class that the witness would have needed to possess extraordinary mental powers*to be able to do so. The members of the class disagreed, and accordingly the professor proved his point.