23857122-0457-180273-0375

OCR Text

COUP TD ANT TAH Engineering Division Memorandum Report No. MCREXD}O9l-18D 25 April 1919 to fly a good mrsuit curve on another airoraft in good daylight, for example, much less to close on a solitary light at night. The difficulty is due chiefly to the inability to judge distance or speed of a point | source of light. Sugcestione Suggestion works in various ways Sensational radio and newspaper reports lead a few people to imagine they aro seeing things they are not seeing. The effeat on most people is to dampen their critical judgment. Under such oonditions we are more likely to overlook certain factors, and find it easier to accept the surcegted explanation unoritically. The expected result would be to make the reports of most observors slightly less accurate than i they had never heard reports of others seeing "flying saucers”. Particularly when the stimulus object is iazy or ill-defined, persons tend to see it as resa@nbling whatever is suggested to them. Carmichael ete ale, for example (1932) showed individuals simple designs and gave them the name of an object, When the individuals drew the design from memory, they drow it to resemble whatever the object was that had been suggested to them. Precedent. An historical precedent can be foind for most errors of human observation, Although the writer has not tried to make an historical survey of reports of earlier unidentified acrial objects, he feels sure that there have been many such reports in years past, particularly during and after World War I, Gmall Windeborne Objectse It is possible that sano observers may have seen stall objects carried aloft by strong winds, or objects dropped from airoraft, Bits of paper, small cartons, etce, may oom cationslly be carried to a considerable height by strong winds. Aire arnfh new sometimes jettison small articles, It would be impossible to aad Declassification Authority: NND 57565