Volume 25 Number 5 81 02 05 Discrimination at 70? World Bank Psychologist looks at the elderly as witnesses officials to visit Three senior staff members of the World Bank What do Presidents Reagan and Bresnhev have in the eyes of others involved in legal pro- will be on campus Thursday, February 12 and in common? ceedings. He plans to hold a series of simulated Friday, February 13 for discussions with Neither of them would be permitted to crimes such as rapes, muggings and con jobs. faculty members and graduate students about serve on a Canadian jury; they are too old. In The accuracy with which elderly people are development projects in various parts of the Ontario you can only be a juryman between able to describe the events, and to identify globe. the ages of 18 and 69 years. If you are 70 victims and perpetrators, will be tested against In addition to scheduled talks with Uni- years of age, you are ruled out — regardless of scores by younger witnesses. versity officials, they have also reserved time in actual mental and physical competence. (You Prof. Yarmey wants to find out the extent their schedule for additional appointments can be a judge, incidently, until you are 75.) to which the elderly are influenced by stereo- with members of the University of Guelph "Everyone makes assumptions about the types. Do they tend, for example, to jump to community. Faculty members or students general competence of the elderly, but every- conclusions of guilt in the case of a brutal who wish to meet with them should contact one does not make the same assumptions" looking suspect; are they more or less confused the Centre For International Programs, Ext. says psychology professor Dan Yarmey, who in relation to the number of persons involved 3256. will be researching this subject during the next in the situation, and is their attention easily Senior member of the World Bank delega- two years with the help of a $36,000 grant distracted? tion will be Earl Drake who has been Canadian from the Social Sciences Humanities Research Credibility will be investigated by field executive director of the World Bank since Council. testing different people to find out what they 1975. His area of responsibility includes Memory, notes the professor, turns out believe about the elderly. Elderly people will most of the West Indies, Ireland and Canada. to be a package of several related elements. be asked themselves to judge their own and From 1972 to 1975, Mr. Drake was vice- How well people remember something they one anothers credibility, and Prof. Yarmey president of the Canadian International have witnessed cannot easily be separated will be talking with judges, lawyers, police Development Agency (CIDA). Previous post- from how well they are able to communicate officers and other trials witnesses. ings include deputy permanent representative their recollections. A further element is The psychology professor will be seeking of Canada to OECD, Paris, and Canadian High credibility — will anyone believe you? Widely the help of the community, especially senior Commissioner to Pakistan. held reservations about the competence of the citizens social organizations. He hopes that Mr. Drake will be accompanied by Donald elderly and their capacity for the critical they will invite him to come and tell them Martinusen, chief of the rural development examination of complex data are reflected in about the project, and then join in some of division of the World Bank and Ted Davis, the age restrictions on jury members. his workshops. senior rural development officer. q Prof. Yarmey wants to find out if this Prof. Yarmey, whose book The Psy- discrimination has any operational validity. chology of Eyewitness Testimony (Collier Standard tests for jury members already exist Macmillan, 1979) has attracted world-wide Flag flies but is there any good reason why the same attention from law enforcement agencies, criteria should not apply after the age of 69, has been invited to address the Law and for Year of Disabled he questions. Psychology Conference, Trinity College, While Americans were flying the "Stars and Prof. Yarmey is proposing a series of Oxford next April, and the Stockholm, Stripes" and hanging yellow ribbons from one studies into two major areas — actual recall by Sweden Symposium on Witness Psychology end of the nation to the other for the return elderly people, and their credibil ty as witnesses next September. q of the hostages, the University was also raising a unique flag. For the past two weeks the blue and white commemorative flag for the International Year of the Disabled has been raised each morning on one of the three flagpoles in front of the University Centre. According to Mrs. Helen Blair of the Guelph and surrounding area committee to mark the International Year of the Disabled, the University agreed to fly the special flag after it has been in use at Guelphs City Hall for a two-week period. The flag is now at the Stone Road Mall, but the University expects to fly it again later in the year. q Plant scientists soon face philosophical question has been making progress in these directions for centuries; all we are doing now is to speed up the process to a degree which had not pre- viously been visualized." Dr. Carlsons lecture consisted of what he described as "a sharing of fantasies, an invitation to gaze into his crystal ball," as he outlined a number of specifics of contempor- ary cell and tissue culture research which appear to him to be on the threshold of a breakthrough. The lecture series, sponsored by the Plant Cell Culture Centre, was developed in response to discussion by faculty members to whom tissue culture is not necessarily a . Dr. Carlson primary interest, but who wish to become better acquainted with the potential of the Professor Emeritus George E. Raithby died at A pioneer in tissue culture research says plant new technology. Guelph, January 31. He had been in declining health in recent months. scientists will be able to do anything they want The next lectures are February 12, when Prof. Raithby retired from the Department to — produce any variant, any mutant — Dr. Wilf Keller, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa of Animal Science in 1965 after 35 years on Research Station, will speak on "Protoplast within 15 years. the faculty; the last 11 as chairman of the Isolation and Fusion in Wide Hybridization," Plants scientist are rapidly reaching a Department. He was known across Canada and point where they must ask not "how to" but at 3 p.m. and Dr. Trevor Thorpe, University internationally as an outstanding judge of dairy "what for," Dr. Peter Carlson of Michigan of Calgary, Alberta, on "Callus Organization cattle. He also played a significant role in the State University said in the first in a series of and Regeneration of Shoots and Roots From education of many other members of that campus lectures on "Techniques and Applica- Tissue Cultures" at 4 p.m. The lectures are in Department, as well as graduates who assumed tion of Cell and Tissue Culture to Agriculture Room 217, Chemistry/Microbiology building. key positions in other segments of agriculture. and Industry" last Thursday. Further lectures will be listed in "Next Week Respected and loved for interest in his students, q he would bend the course of study to include The question is a philosophical one, he at Guelph." extras that he felt would be of benefit to them. believes, and it reflects Dr. Carlsons earlier studies in philosophy which still clearly enrich George Raithby was the first former mem- his thinking. Convocation Friday ber of the faculty of the University of Guelph The technique is a matter of applying Guelphs academic community will be capped to be honored with the title Professor Emeritus technology to biology, he says. It is one of and gowned Friday, February 6 for winter when that distinction was established in 1974. Shortly after he became head of the Department, miniaturization and speeding up what in Convocation ceremonies in War Memorial the first computer on campus was installed in nature is a process requiring a great deal of Hall. Three hundred and eight graduands will the Department of Animal Science to analyze time and space. Working with single cells, receive their degrees. production and type records Of Canadian dairy rather than whole plants, researchers can con- At the 10 a.m. ceremony, degrees will be cattle to assist breeders in improving their herds. duct a million experiments in a single petrie conferred on Ph.D., M.A., M.Sc., M.L.A., B.Sc. It is believed to have been the first university- dish. The cells can be stressed in any number (Hon.), B.Sc.(Gen.), B.Sc.(Agr.) and B.L.A. owned computer installed in Ontario. The of ways, to which they respond, simply by graduands, Dr. Robin Coombs, Quick Profes- system developed here has led to the present growing or not growing. It is no longer neces- sor of Biology and Head of the Immunology highly sophisticated world-wide data sharing sary to take experimental plants into the Division, Department of Pathology at the Uni- system for dairy cattle. desert to see if they will grow, the desert can versity of Cambridge, will receive an honorary In 1976 Prof. Raithbys portrait was hung in now be brought into the laboratory. Doctor of Science degree and give the Convo- the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in It is now possible to create a wide range cation address. Toronto. of adverse conditions to determine survival At the 2:30 p.m.