Vol. X. No. 2. JAN 2 0 1914 LIBRARY THE February 15, 1913 PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, CLEVELAND, OHIO, DECEMBER 30 AND 31, 1912, AND JANUARY 1, 1913 Report of THE SECRETARY, Professor W. V. BINGHAM, The twenty-first annual meeting of the American Psychological Association was held at the Western Reserve University, Cleveland, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, December 30 and 31, 1912, and January 1, 1913, in affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The attendance at the meetings was excellent. It included, naturally, more than the usual number of members from the central West. The sessions, with one exception, were held in the Physics building of Adelbert College. In spite of the fact that this location was several miles from the hotel headquarters, it proved to be very satisfactory. Local plans had been made with unusual foresight, and everything was done that could be done by the hosts of the Association to add to the convenience of the arrangements, and the comfort of the members. On New Year's Eve, a psychologists' dinner was shared by seventy of the members and their friends. Following the dinner, the Association listened to the address of the President, Professor Edward L. Thorndike, on "Ideo-motor Action." The speaker vigorously attacked the widely current doctrine. He reported the results of a study of American psychologists which showed that although a majority of them hold to the doctrine that an idea of a movement tends to produce the movement it resembles, nevertheless these same psychologists believe that the less the idea resembles a desired. movement, the more efficient it will be in producing it! The doctrine of ideo-motor action was declared to be a lineal descendant of the belief of primitive man in magic, a vestigial survival in scientific thought of an ancient superstition. The animated discussion which this address provoked at the smoker which followed later in the evening, served to dispel any apprehension that American psychologists have lost interest in analytical and theoretical questions, and today care only for the problems of experimental and applied psychology. It is true that more than three fourths of the forty-one papers read at the meetings were reports of experimental investigations. Of this number eight were in comparative psychology, fifteen in applied psychology, and ten in experimental psychology. In addition there were six papers upon various topics in general and analytical psychology and psychopathology, and three papers upon themes of common interest to psychologists and anthropologists, read at the joint meeting with the American Anthropological Association and Section H. At this session, which was the most largely attended of any, an address was given by Professor Felix Krueger, of Halle, Kaiser Wilhelm Exchange Professor of Psychology at Columbia University; and Professor George Trumbull Ladd delivered the address of the retiring Vice-president of Section H. The display of new apparatus included a keyboard problem box for studying types of learning in human subjects, and two voice recorders, by Professor Shepard; a simple and convenient graduated brake for electric motor, by Dr. Frost; and new forms of chronoscopes by Dr. Dunlap and Dr. E. E. Jones. Still another new form of measuring association reaction was demonstrated at the Tuesday afternoon meeting by Dr. Brown, of the Physical Laboratory of the University of Iowa. At the Friday afternoon session, a representative of Bausch and Lomb demonstrated a new stereopticon attachment for the projection of monochromatic light, complementary colors, and color mixtures. The display of standard apparatus by the Stoelting Co. was again a prominent feature of the exhibit. Professor Kirkpatrick had on exhibition a sample of the series of photographs of psychologists which he has prepared. The interest shown in the project was sufficiently keen to warrant him in going forward with the plans. Ten of the members who had expected to read papers were un 1 1 Brown, F. C., "An Electrical Method of Measuring Small Intervals of Time," Physical Review, 34, 452-458. avoidably detained; but even so, there was no lack of program material. Rather, the program, in spite of arrangements for two simultaneous sessions, proved to be quite compact. An inordinately large number of contributors failed to compress their reports into the time limits they had requested, with the result that all too little time was available for informal discussion. The large audiences, too, tended somewhat to check spontaneous debate. It is evident that the Association will be compelled in the future to choose between some of these alternatives: lengthening the period of meeting to four or five days; cutting down the maximum time limit assigned to papers and holding readers strictly to the period specified; refusing a place on the program to a fraction of the members with reports to present; accepting only those titles which bear on certain specified groups of topics; increasing the number of simultaneous sessions and group meetings; or, making no allowance of time whatever for informal discussion. This last alternative would, without doubt, be most unsatisfactory. The plan of parallel sessions has many advantages and some disadvantages. There will inevitably be those at each meeting who will protest because papers in which they are interested are being read in different meetings at the same time. On the other hand, the audiences will be smaller and more homogeneous, and this will conduce to greater freedom of comment and criticism. In this connection it may be announced that the newly elected executive committee proposes, in making plans for the next meeting, to use every means in its power to encourage members to prepare their reports in such a manner that they may be presented to the Association without transgressing the usual limits of time. This will involve in many instances the abandonment of any efforts to present orally either elaborate accounts of methods used or detailed statements of results,-details which can in any case be much more easily grasped when they appear in printed form. Another plan which may be adopted in the effort to encourage free discussion and interchange of ideas is that of holding round. tables. Relatively small groups, made up, for example, of psychologists actively engaged in perfecting tests of mental development, or of psychological workers in reformatory institutions, or of investigators of the "imageless thought" problem, may meet to confer at length regarding questions peculiar to their work. Authors' abstracts of the papers read will be found following the report of the business meeting. In conformity with a vote of the council at the Washington meeting, no papers were listed to be read by title. TRANSACTIONS AT THE ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING A brief preliminary business meeting was held on Tuesday at a time when the attendance was at a maximum, to hear the report of the special committee on methods of nomination and election of officers. This report, presented by Professor Aikins, had been formulated in the light of a wide inquiry into the methods of election used by the many learned societies of America. The committee recommended: I. That those portions of the constitution dealing with the election of officers be suspended for three years. II. That during that period the President and two members of the Council be nominated by a nominating committee elected at the annual meeting one year before that at which they are expected to report. III. That this nominating committee consist of three members elected by ballot (without previous nomination) at the annual meeting, the persons receiving the largest number of votes to be declared elected to this nominating committee, the President casting the deciding vote or votes in case of a tie. IV. That it shall be the duty of the nominating committee to communicate with every member of the Association, asking for nominations or suggestions, before making its nominations to the Association. The nominating committee shall also file with the Secretary a memorandum as to the number of members who send in. replies, and other similar data, for the future guidance of the Association. V. That the Secretary of the Association be nominated by the Council as at present. VI. That at the end of three years a new committee shall be appointed to consider and report upon the working of the above plan. The recommendations of the committee were adopted and Professor Angell, Professor Watson and Professor Thorndike were elected to act as a nominating committee for the coming year. At the regular business meeting, the following officers, nominated by the Council, were elected: President: Professor Howard C. Warren, of Princeton. Members of the Council to serve three years (Professors Lindley and Yerkes retiring): Professor J. W. Baird, of Clark University, and Professor Madison Bentley, of the University of Illinois. Member of the Council to serve one year, filling the vacancy caused by the election of Professor Warren as President: Dr. Shepherd Ivory Franz, of Washington, D. C. Representative on the Council of the A. A. A. S.: Professor Robert M. Ogden, of the University of Tennessee. On recommendation by the Council, the following persons were elected to membership in the Association: Henry Foster Adams, Ph.D., University of Michigan; Charles Macfie Campbell, M.A., Bloomingdale Hospital, White Plains, New York; Walter Bradford Cannon, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School; Wallace Craig, Ph.D., University of Maine; Ludwig Reinhold Geissler, Ph.D., University of Georgia; William Healy, A.B., M.D., Juvenile Psychopathic Institute of Chicago; Thomas Verner Moore, Ph.D., Catholic University, Washington, D. C.; Jared Sparks Moore, Ph.D., Western Reserve University; Rudolf Pintner, M.A., Ph.D., Toledo University; Albert T. Poffenberger, Jr., Ph.D., Columbia University; B. R. Simpson, Ph.D., Brooklyn Training School for Teachers; Clara Harrison Town, Ph.D., Lincoln State School and Colony, Lincoln, Illinois. The report of the treasurer was read, as printed below, and accepted. The Council reported the following statement of policy, formulated after considering the urgent wishes of members who prefer sometimes to meet apart from the large group of societies affiliated with the A. A. A. S.: It is the opinion of the Council that in determining the place of the annual meeting, consideration should be given to the desirability of meeting in alternate years apart from other organizations, or in affiliation with some other small association with kindred interests. Invitations had been received to meet next year at Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, and also at Atlanta, where the A. A. A. S. and the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology are to meet. An invitation had also come from the executive committee of the American Philosophical Association, suggesting a joint meeting. It was voted to hold the next meeting at New Haven, subject to later action by the Council.1 Professor Martin brought to the Association an invitation to hold a meeting in California in the summer of 1915. She also outlined a fascinating project for an excursion of psychologists to San Francisco by way of Panama. 1 The place of meeting of the American Philosophical Association has not been fixed, but it is hoped that it, too, will arrange to meet in New Haven. |