376 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 
AFTERNOON. 
(Section meeting in two divisions.) 
Division 1. 
Miss G. B. Dopps.—The learning of French in a Scottish school (2.0). 
Language, essentially speech, is acquired in a situation, i.e. an actual 
experience, and practised as a skill, in the situation to which it belongs. 
Thus the direct association is formed between the word and the idea. 
Simple plays in French, on gramophone records, provide the French 
situation, and, acted in class, afford the necessary practice in speech. 
Illustrations from the classroom indicate that language thus acquired 
recurs spontaneously for self-expression when required in a similar situation. 
Lessons and exercises are based on the phrases and sentences already 
memorised and acquired by ear and imitation. 
Dr. W. Brown.—The theory of two factors versus the sampling theory of 
mental ability (2.45). 
According to the two-factor theory of Prof. C. Spearman, the abilities 
measured by suitably chosen mental tests are divisible into two factors each, 
one being common to all (the general factor, g), while the other is in each 
case specific and independent (the specific factor, s). 
According to the sampling theory of Prof. Godfrey Thomson, any one 
mental ability is due to the operation of a certain set of factors, another 
ability to another set, and so on ; and these sets may overlap in any manner. 
In a joint research with Dr. W. Stephenson 19 non-overlapping mental 
tests were applied to a homogeneous group of 300 boys, aged 10 to 104 years, 
giving 171 correlation coefficients, of which one was later omitted for definite 
psychological reasons. Tetrad differences (of the form 7473, — 11312), 
to the number of 22,712, were calculated from these 170 coefficients after 
they had been corrected by partialling out a ‘ verbal factor’ involved in 
some of the tests. 
The observed frequency-distribution of tetrad differences was then 
compared with the theoretical distributions (Type Ila Pearson curves) to be 
expected on the assumptions of the two theories, respectively, and was 
found to approximate very closely to the two-factor theory. 
There were difficulties in determining the most probable or suitable 
standard-deviation for the sampling theory curve, but the observed values 
of 7 (0°413) and o, (0:087) were the fundamentally important facts to be 
taken into account here. 
Dr.5S.J. F. PHitporr.—Conventional measures of fatigue and their meaning 
(3-30). 
Division 2. 
Miss J. A. WaLEs.—A description of the methods of vocational guidance used 
in Berlin (2.0). © 
After a short introduction the paper gives a brief description of the 
educational system of Berlin and notes the chief points of difference from the 
London system. It outlines the arrangements whereby trade talks are 
given by the Ministry of Labour vocational advisers to children about to 
leave school, and explains the organisation of the juvenile departments of 
the Employment Exchanges where individual advice is given and cases of 
difficulty are referred to the special Medical Officer if the difficulty is one 
