34 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XXI. No. 520 



SCIENCE: 



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THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. 



One of the most significant meetings that occurred during the 

 Christmas hoh'days was that of the American Psychological As- 

 socialion in Philadelphia on Dec. 27 and 28. This was the first 

 regular meeting of this body, a temporary organization having 

 been effected in June last. The coming together of psychologists 

 is significant not alone of the rapid strides which this science has 

 recently been making, but particularly of the unity of method 

 and subject matter which the introduction of scientific modes of 

 observation into this controverted field has made possible. This 

 association of psychol.ogists is composed almost exclusively of 

 specialists who are studying the nature of mental processes by the 

 help of ingeniously devised apparatus, are propounding new prob- 

 lems and adopting new methods to their solution, and, in brief, 

 are proceeding with that painstaking vigor and caution charac- 

 teristic of all phases of modern science. For these reasons an ac- 

 count of their proceedings necessarily becomes somewhat techni- 

 cal; but this moderate element of technicality is itself a welcome 

 relief from that over-popularization and almost sensational pub- 

 licity in which a line of activity too often confused with psychol- 

 ogy has indulged. 



The meeting was called to order by the president of the associ- 

 ation. President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, and the 

 reading of papers began with a paper by Professor Catell. of Col- 

 umbia College, on " Errors of Observation in Physics and in 

 Psychology." Profes.-or Catell criticised that line of psycho- 

 physical observation in which the liability to degree of error was 

 taken as a standard of the sensibility for differences. He con- 

 sidered that the entire subject needed re-investigation, with a 

 complete separation of these two points. He also regarded that 

 recent experiments of his own and Professor Fullerton tended to 

 show that the errors of observation do not fall under the law as 

 usually stated (Weber's law) but approximate the law which the 

 disti'ihution of errors demanded. 



A very interesting problem was presented by Dr. Witmer, of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, in an account of a research 

 upon the aesthetics of visual form. Dr. Witmer attempted to 

 determine, by a large number of experiments, such questions as, 

 What are he most pleasing forms ? What proportions of the divi- 

 sion of :i 1 e. and what proportions of the relations of the height 

 to the lire Ith of a rectangle are the most pleasing? and the 

 like. The results of these preferences were interpreted by refer- 

 ence to the general outline of the field of vision, of which the fig- 

 ures form a part. He showed conclusively that the former 

 views of the conditions of such sesthetic judgments were inade- 

 quate, and that this neglected factor of the position of the figure 

 with reference to the edges of the field of vision was a most im- 

 portant one. The experiments will be continued and give prom- 

 ise of contributing some measure of system and order to a field 

 usually regarded as determined by caprice. 



President Hall presented a brief outline of the history and pros- 



pects of experimental psychology in America, tracing the begin- 

 nings of this study from the first laboratory founded at Johns 

 Hopkins University some eight years ago, up to the present time, 

 when there are as many or more psychological laboratories estab- 

 lished in this country than in all Europe. The rapid dissemina- 

 tion of interest in psychological studies and the material provi- 

 sions for its future development were ably presented, and various 

 measures of credit judiciously assigned. The publication of sucb 

 a review of the purposes, methods and results of the new psycho- 

 logy, as President Hall outlined, should certainly contribute 

 much towards a more general understanding of what psychology 

 and psychologists are doing and — equally important — not doing. 

 Professor Jastrow, of the University of Wisconsin, gave an ac- 

 count of the exhibit of experimental psychology, which is to be 

 made at the World's Fair. Here, for the first time, the attempt 

 will he made to gather together various types of apparatus which 

 are used in psychological research, to maintain in running order 

 a working laboratory, in which simple tests of the senses, powers 

 of judgment, the times of mental processes, the peculiarities of 

 association, the limits of memory, of fatigue, and the like, may 

 be made and recorded ; and to exhibit in some measure the results 

 of statistical and other forms of research. Considerable expendi- 

 ture, the co-operation of colleges, of individual psychologists and 

 of makers of apparatus have been secured for the successful com- 

 pletion of this large task. It is hoped that this somewhat com- 

 prehensive exhibit of the method and aims of this new science 

 may aid in disseminating a truer and more appreciative view of 

 the theoretical and practical value of this line of research thao 

 has yet been accomplished. 



Professor Miinsterberg, of Harvard University, upon the request 

 of the president, addressed the association, speaking of the prob- 

 lems that were engaging his attention at his laboratory at Cam- 

 bridge. No less than fifteen subjects of investigation are here in 

 progress, and the nature of some of these Professor Miinsterberg 

 described in a very interesting manner. The impetus to work in 

 this direction, which his acceptance of the chair at Harvard has 

 given, has already made itself evident, and, before the year is 

 over, many important results will undoubtedly be issued from his 

 laboratory. The subjects under investigation covered a wide 

 range, from the determination of the methods of localizing 

 sounds in space, and a new method of determining when differ- 

 ences of sensation may be regarded as equal, to complicated ex- 

 periments upon the nature of association, of changes in mental 

 condition, of complex forms of reaction, and the like. 



Dr. Sanford reported some of the minor studies which are in 

 part completed and in part in progress at the laboratory of 

 Clark University. One of these studies gave an account of the 

 fluctuations in mental pow'er at different portions of the day, 

 as determined by the capacity to remember a series of arbitrary 

 impressions. Another dealt with the frequency and character 

 of dreams of subjects who every night at once recorded their 

 dreams upon awakening from them. The great frequency of 

 dreams, the fact that they are concentrated in the early hours 

 of the morning, that they are so largely based upon actual ex- 

 periences, and that recent events contribute much to their con- 

 tent, — these and other points clearly appeared in the analysis 

 which this material furnished. 



Professor Bryan, of the University of Indiana, presented two 

 paper's, in one of which he gave an account of experiments estab- 

 lishing the effect of the intensity of the stimulus upon the reac- 

 tion time; and, in the other, described some tests which had been 

 made in schools of Springfield, Mass. These tests show the de- 

 velopment of motor power in children at different ages, and 

 brought out many unexpected and significant relations. 



Papers were also read by Dr. Nichols, of Harvard College, pre- 

 senting some novel experiments upon illusions of rotation and 

 upon the sense of pain ; by Professor Pace of the Catholic Uni- 

 versity of Washington, describing some observations upon the 

 power of judging the thickness of surfaces held between the 

 thumb and forefinger; by Dr. Witmer, describing the results of a 

 few simple reaction times, taken upon a great variety of unprac- 

 tised subjects; other papers of a somewhat philosophical nature 

 were presented by Dr. Chamberlain, on the " Relation of Psy- 



