SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.^. 373 



to twelve years, and it was about twice as frequent among boys as among girls at all 

 ages. All speech, defects, except stammering, were less frequent at the higher ages ; 

 the proportion of stammerers among the seniors (age eleven years) was twice as 

 great as among the infants (age six), and it was twice as great among boys as among 

 girls. 



Clinical records suggest that speech disability is as frequently the cause as the 

 effect of mental disorder. The defects which call for special attention in this connec - 

 tion are imitated defects, which are most difficult to cure and emotionally most 

 disturbing, and defects due to organic malformation or to delayed development 

 which rouse feelings of inferiority as soon as the individual becomes aware of them. 

 The most common causes of stammering and stuttering among young children appear 

 to be fear, anxiety, jealousy — e.g. of a younger brother or sister — thwarted desire and 

 bad teaching. 



Among the many causes of indistinct and badly articulated speech must be 

 reckoned low sensitivity to pitch differences. An investigation of the speech of 

 200 women revealed a correlation of - 73 between sensitivity to pitch and amount of 

 improvement in speech. 



Dr. J. Drever. — Meaning. 



Dr. Ll. Wynn-Jones. — The Appreciation of Wit. 



The distinction between the psychology of the wit and that of the appreciator of 

 wit in others may sometimes profitably be made. The divergence of views regarding 

 the former is well known, cf. Locke, Hazlitt, Bergson, Freud, &c. But even with 

 regard to the latter, which is the subject of this paper, various beliefs are current. 

 Most, however, would agree that one characteristic of witty, as distinct from humorous, 

 stories is the pause of varying length during which the point of the story becomes 

 manifest. 



Two series, each of eighteen paragraphs, involving sound-wit, play on words, 

 caricature, characterisation wit, repartee and incongruities were shown to elementary 

 school children (Standards 5 and 7), to secondary school children (Form 5), and to 

 university graduates. The stories were short, for not only is brevity the soul of wit, 

 but the exigencies of experimentation also demand it. 



It is sometimes held that wit is relative, not only to class, but also to locality ; 

 but a preliminary survey seems to indicate that locality as such plays an insignificant 

 part, if any, in comparison with the paramount factor of ' g.' Lack of comprehension 

 of written words and phrases makes it very difficult for children in Standard 5 to 

 appreciate the majority of witty stories. 



A characteristic of all groups is that when the point of a story is not manifest 

 there is an active search for a clue and an irrelevant solution is often accepted. In 

 many cases, however, these solutions are highly ingenious. 



The marking of such tests is not so rapid or ' fool-proof ' as in most group tests, 

 but a counterbalance is the greater insight into personality. Greater still is this 

 insight when they are used as individual tests. 



Mr. E. Farmer. — Certain Psychological Aspects of Accident Causation. 



The statistical work of Yule, Greenwood, and Newbold has shown that the distribu- 

 tion of industrial accidents among individuals exposed to the same risk is not such 

 as can be explained by chance. The typical curve of accident distribution is L> -shaped , 

 with a large number in the group having relatively few accidents and a small propor- 

 tion having an undue number. The hypothesis that best explains this distribution 

 is that each person has a given degree of accident proneness that will determine to a 

 large extent the number of accidents he will sustain in a given period of exposure. 



Tests have been carried out by the Industrial Fatigue Research Board with the 

 object of determining what are the personal qualities connected with a high accident 

 rate. Several hundred subjects have been tested and the preliminary results published. 

 These indicate that subjects who do badly in certain sensory-motor tests also tend to 

 have a larger number of accidents in a given period of equal exposure than those who 

 do well in the tests. The difference in accident rate between those above and below 

 the mean for the 600 subjects tested during the investigation was 48 per cent. This 



