442 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—J. 
AFTERNOON. 
Mr. W. J. DEARNALEY.—Character-formation (2.0). 
Dr. P. E. VeRNoN.— The matching method of studying personality (2.45). 
An example of matching is to show to a group of judges six photographs 
of unknown individuals and six brief descriptions of their personalities, 
numbered in a different order. ‘The judges try to fit or match the photo- 
graphs with the personality sketches. ‘The proportion of successful match- 
ings, it is found, can be expressed as a modified contingency coefficient ; 
the formule for the coefficient and its probable error have been established 
by empirical statistical experiments. ‘The psychological advantage of this 
method is that the features may be compared with the individual personality 
considered as a whole ; whereas the usual correlation methods of approach 
have to deal with separate traits (or sets of traits) which are abstracted from 
a group of personalities. Matching may be applied also to the voice, hand- 
writing, manner and gestures, emotional expression, artistic style, etc., and 
it is found that these ‘ modes of expression’ definitely reveal more about 
personality than when they are studied by correlation methods. A person’s 
ability to judge personality through matching is found to vary with his 
intelligence, artistic and social qualities, age, sex and practice. 
Dr. R. B. CatteLL.—The measurement of interests (3.30). 
Interest measurement has practical importance in vocational guidance, 
but its greatest significance is in connection with research into character 
development ; for a study of the alterations in sentiment attachments is 
an essential part of characterology. } 
Some experiments are described on the growth and decline of various 
interests in children between the ages of seven and fifteen years. Discussion 
of methods of measurement, e.g. (1) by extent to which individuals talk or write 
about subjects ; (2) by observing the selective action of retentive memory 
on facts presented; (3) by surveying the individual’s fields of stored 
knowledge ; (4) by noting the selections made by involuntary attention 
among presented stimuli. The value and practicability of other criteria 
and experimental methods. 
Experimental comparison of various methods of interest measurement. 
Some results in clinical work with a standardised interest test. Profiles of 
individuals in different occupations, of relatives, of friends. The effect of 
intelligence. 
Definition of interest. Interest and the unconscious. Is there any 
value in a conception of ‘ interest ’ which ignores qualitative differences ? 
Dr. G. SerH.—Some psychological characteristics of contemporary English 
poetry (4.15). 
There are two principal lines of approach to the psychological problems 
of the work of art. The one, which may be called broadly the clinico- 
historical approach, is concerned primarily with the work as an expression 
of the individual artist, and with its place in his development. ‘The other 
is concerned rather with the psychological problems that are apparent in 
the handling of a particular medium, with the nature of the esthetic effects 
which it makes possible, and with the extent and manner of their utilisation 
by the artist. In this paper the second line of approach is followed, in a 
study of some of the psychological aspects of the handling of the medium 
of language in contemporary English verse. ‘The problems involved may 
be subsumed under the rubrics of communication and meaning. 
