894 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 



is to show that children of civilized parents, 

 through accidental faults in early education 

 arising from the faculty of vivid imagination, 

 and owing to the misuse of the " ego-centric " 

 or cardinal point method of orientation, build 

 up persistent impressions quite erroneous, 

 which later on in life unconsciously affect their 

 judgment when attempting to find their way in 

 unfamiliar regions and lead to utter confusion 

 with respect to the way home. Examples of 

 this effect are common. 



In the tests made by the author it is in- 

 teresting to note that almost every subject 

 who had an " imaginary map " for far dis- 

 tant places, gave the direction from New 

 York towards Albany, N. T., nearly correct. 

 Albany is about 90 miles from New York. 

 This indicates that the education gradually 

 fixes in thought the correct direction toward 

 places, finally overshadowing the influence of 

 the " imaginary map." The position of the 

 Hudson River with respect to New York prob- 

 ably is an important factor in correctly fixing 

 this particular direction. 



It must be distinctly understood that the di- 

 rections in " imaginary maps " are not as the 

 subject knows the directions to be, but merely 

 where they always imagine them as being in 

 the ordinary process of thinking, and in all 

 cases referred to in the present discussion the 

 subject having an imaginary map, Jcneiv the 

 correct directions approximately. The " imag- 

 inary map " is thus superimposed on the real 

 map, or it may be said that the subject has 

 two maps; one approximately correct, the 

 other entirely imaginary. 



Statistical Data. — Some statistics are given 

 in Tables I. to V. The subjects on whose 

 orientation data the tables are based were all 

 persons of university training. Table I. con- 

 tains ten cases of imaginary maps as deter- 

 mined by the directions towards four far dis- 

 tant places. Four of these maps are given 

 diagrammatieally in Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7, repre- 

 senting different types which have been classi- 

 fied as A, B, G and D, respectively. In Table 

 II. is given the mean error and average varia- 

 tion of the observations recorded in Table I. 



Table III. contains ten cases of subjects 



having no imaginary maps and includes the 

 angular deviation from the correct directions. 

 It is seen that there may be very large errors 

 in some cases in locating the direction 

 towards the places selected for the test. All 

 the subjects in Table III. had but one orienta- 

 tion map, however, while those in Table I. have 

 two. 



In Table IV. the mean error and average 

 variation of the observations in Table III. are 

 given in a manner similar to Table II. 



It seemed desirable to select at random ten 

 subjects not having imaginary maps, and then 

 to determine their orientation accuracy in 

 each case by asking them to locate the direc- 

 tions towards the cardinal points of the com- 

 pass. This was done, and it was found that 

 astonishingly large errors were recorded in 

 a few cases, as shown in Table V. The aver- 

 age error was 30°, and the mean of these errors 

 with respect to north was 22.6° clockwise 

 (eastward). All but two showed a decided 

 clockwise error, which was accounted for by 

 reason of the prevailing idea that the chief 

 avenues in New York lie approximately north 

 and south. Actually they lie 29 degrees (clock- 

 wise) from the meridian, that is, the azimuth 

 of the longitudinal streets of Manhattan is 

 N. 29° E. 



In the tables the record in degrees given was 

 based on but one observation. By a special 

 test it was found that the deviation readings 

 always varied a few degrees; some consider- 

 ably more; therefore, the readings given in 

 the tables should be understood to indicate 

 the approximate deviation angle only. 



In a few cases errors were made due to mag- 

 netic disturbances of the compass when 

 checking up the charts, but these have no sig- 

 nificance in the article, therefore, they are at 

 present disregarded. 



The method of obtaining the data relating 

 to " imaginary maps " was as follows : A cir- 

 cular piece of paper was placed before a sub- 

 ject, who was requested to mark on the disk 

 the directions from the center of the disk. New 

 York, N. Y., to the North Pole, London, San 

 Francisco and Panama, as these places ap- 

 peared to him. The magnetic north was then 



