Baker report, 1968 congressional hearings

The scores wlll be variably useful, depending on their applicability to the situation in question. It is expected that they will
be helpful in the screening and selection of candidates for observational jobs (i.e., predictive evaluations). They will
usually be more reliable as measures of creditability, however, when they are part of a retrospective evaluation that is being
done on an individual who has already reported a particular event. This is because the examiner-scorer is able to avail
himself of specific observational material on which to "zero in" and check out, including occasional clues to physical and
psychological pathology. In those instances where there are different stories from several individuals who report having
witnessed the same event, the value of the creditability scoring can be further demonstrated for sorting out conflicting data.
It is readily acknowledged that this scoring method is somewhat arbitrary. Its reliability and reproducibility will depend
largely on the sophistication and the abilities of the scorer. It is essential that the physician doing these studies have 1) a
high-level working knowledge of the four specialties involved, that he 2) be specifically well-informed in the pertinent
interdisciplinary material related to observational phenomena, and that he 3) be adept in the matter of investigating,
synthesizing, interpreting, and finally applying the ramifications of his "pure" medical findings to observational situations.
It is further recommended that 4) he himself be thoroughly checked out as a creditable observer, since this proposed
method [of] assessing observers rests heavily on the physician's own ability to make accurate observations and sound
judgments.
It is probably true that, at this point in time, there are few men in medicine who are adequately trained to do this
multispecialty kind of assessment. This is a remediable situation, however, once the projected need for such professional
preparation has been recognized and established.
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Biographical Sketch for Dr. Sydney Walker, III
July 22, 1968
Sydney Walker III, M.D. is a 36 year old neuropsychiatrist who was born in Chicago, raised in Pasadena, did
undergraduate study at UCLA, followed by graduate work in physiology and pharmacology, and received his medical
training at Boston University School of Medicine. Following some neurosurgical training, he did university residencies in
both psychiatry and neurology. He has contributed numerous articles in both these specialties and is the author of a recently
published book, Psychiatric Signs and Symptoms due to Medical Problems, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1967.
His interest in neuro-opthalmology has been more recent and has emerged from his research in connection with the
preparation of another monograph, The Neuropsychiatric Evaluation of the Eye Witness (to be published in late 1968).
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