50 Years ago

It often happens that investigators, particularly in the social sciences, must try to collect the information which they need by using questionnaires. One of the many problems that are apt to arise concerns the reliability of answers to questions which require an exercise of detailed and specific memory. Recently, the Tobacco Manufacturers Standing Committee issued a Research Paper (No. 2) entitled “The Reliability of Statements about Smoking Habits” by G. F. Todd and J. T. Laws ... The authors show how statements about current smoking habits are generally reconstructed from a sort of 'mental picture' that the informant has of himself 'in his role as a smoker'. Changes in smoking habits are far more frequent than is generally thought to be the case, and so any information about them which refers to the past, based, as it must be, upon a general and personal assessment of current practices, is very likely to be in error ... recall is frequently mistaken both as regards the amount and the kind of smoking carried on. Apart from the special topical interest of this study, it has wide methodological implications which ought to be considered by all users of questionnaires.

From Nature 4 April 1959.

100 Years ago

The influence of breed on egg-production in poultry is well seen in a report recently issued by Messrs. E. and W. Brown from University College, Reading. Danish, American, and English Leghorns were kept under comparable conditions for twelve months, and careful record was kept of the number of eggs laid. The Danish birds had been bred to yield a large number of eggs of moderate size; the English birds, on the other hand, had been largely bred for exhibition purposes, for which egg-producing capacity is not needed ... The profit on the English birds is shown to be much less than that on the Danish or American birds.

From Nature 1 April 1909.