"Hidden Problems of Expectation and Suggestion"

Someone emailed me this link to an intriguing paper. The title is "The Daubert/Kumho Implications of Observer Effects In Forensic Science: Hidden Problems of Expectation and Suggestion". Here's one paragraph:

An elementary principle of modern psychology is that the desires and expectations people possess influence their perceptions and interpretations of what they observe. In other words, the results of observation depend upon the state of the observer as well as the thing observed. This insight is not new; long before cognitive scientists began formally studying the psy-chological foundations of such effects, the phenomenon was noticed and commented upon. Julius Caesar, for instance, noted that “men generally believe quite freely that which they want to be true.

The paper is also available as a Word document here.