International colloquium on factor analysis

COMMUNICATIONS of the Group for the Coordination of Psychiatry and Psychological Methods received :s;upp/L)rt from the Council. The extremely useful work of the Council can be realized only in terms of its budgetary possibilities. In this connection, although such possibilities in the first ,years, without being great still proved to be effective, thanks to UNESCO and WHO, they are rapidly being reduced, and the outlook for the future is discouraging. In 1950 and 1951, CIOMS had a budget of a little more than $60,000 per year. For the three yetars 1952-1954, the subventions totalled $147,700 ($89,200 from WHO and $55,500 from UNESCO) and meimbership dues (varyirrg from $20. to $100.) amounted to $13,113. That means for each year an average of $53,600, but actually more in the first year, and less and less in each succeeding year. The representatives of UNESCQ and of WHO both announced a reduction in their subventions (in the latter case from $25,000 to $S,.OOO), exp aining that their aid was meant to facilitate the formation of a new organization, which should then become self-sufficient. As a result the prospects are poor (since administrative expenses have represented a quarter of the total reoources). Spec%c sutsventions from the Council include, e.g. $3,000 to the Z!ndInternational Congress of Biochemistry (which sends observers but is not an adhering member); $5,000 to the iPth Congress of Physiology; $2,000 to the 3rd Con,gess of Electroencephalography-in 1953; $2,500 to the 5th International Congress of Neurology; $2,000 to the 3rd International Congress of Gerontology:, $2,000 to the 5th International Congress on Mental Health, in 1954; $300 to the 3rd International Congress of Criminology in 1955. There can be no doubt that the financial problem is the most serious one for the future of CIOMS,

INTERNATIONAL

COLLOQUIUM ON FACTOR ANALYSIS BY

M. REUCHLIN z-tIu‘*rnational Colloquium on Factor Analysis and its Applications was organized by the National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) with the aid of the Rockefeller Foundation, and met in Paris from July 11 to 16, 1955. All the participants regretted the absence of Burt and Thurstone, both of whom had intended to be present, and had sent in comm?Jnications. They were both unfortunately prevented by ill health from participating. Since the papers were all distributed to the participants several wlizeksin advance of the Colloquium, most of the: time of tP.e meeting could be devoted to discussion. After the introductory speeches by the Director of the Centre National de la Recherche ,Scientique, and by Prof. Laugier of the Sorbonne, whose initiative was responsible for the Colloquium, and a report b:y Mr. Peel on the results of the UpsaIa symposium in 1953, the group turned to a discussion of the individual communications, each of which was defended by its author. The only exception to thi:s rule were the papers by Thurstone on “Current Problems dnd N[ew Methods in Factor Analysis” and by Burt on “Factor Analysis: Methods and Results”. They ~Lq4.,

did, however, sxve to stimulate an exchange of views among the participants, discussion then turned to the following papers, in the order of their presenta~~@~: Dimensions of intellect. PIfRON, H. - Le probl&me g&&al de la recherche et de la nature des “facteurs” en psycho-physologie. HO~ELLING,H. - Relations of the newer multivariate statistical methods to factor analysis. PINEAU,H. - Remarques sur I’analyse factorielle de Hotelling et comparaison avec les methodes centroides. ~A~~~A~, R. -- A Statistical test for the stability of simple structure. YEEA, M. - Psychological meaning of factor analysis as a research method. BERNYER,G. - Itesfacteurs psychologiques: quelques remarques sur leur nombre, leur identification, leur nature. R~uCHLIN,M. - Facteurs observes et facteurs th~oriques en psychologie. GUTTMAN, L. - The Radex approach to factor analysis. FAVERGE, J. M. - Utilisation du schema de Spearman dans le calcul des images. EYSENCK, H, J. -- Factor analysis and the problem of validity. SG~E~~ER, E. -- Emploi de l’analyse factorielle dans l’&ude de la variability biologiqu~~. LEDERMANN, S. -- Application de l’analyst: factorielle B I’&ude factorielle de la mortalit& DARM~IS, G. ~bse~at~o~s th~oriques sur l’analyse factorielle linbaire et g&&ale. DELAPORTE, P. - Nouvelle m&hode de statistique mathematique pour l’estimation des facteurs et de leur &art-type en analyse factorielle. EL KOUSSY,A. H. - Trends of research in space abilities. HUSEN,T. et HENRYSSON, S. - Factor analysis of achievement tests. PEEL, E, A. - The factor analysis of person correlations and the use of independent determiners to identify the factors. GUILFORD, J. P. -

In Burt’s absence, Reuchlin presented a general synthesis at the end of the discussior;s. All the communications and the discussions (each discussant has been asked to write out his comm,ents~ will be published in French, in one volume, by the Centre rational de la Recherche Scienti~que, 13 Quai Anatole-France, Paris VII, probably early in 1956,

The twelfth Congress of this Association was held in London from the 18th to 23rd July 11955,when there was an attendance of 550 delegates. Meetings of the Congress were organised partly as symposia and partly as groups of individual Papers related to a particular theme. There were four plenary sessions with symposia on subjects of interest to all in the field of applied psychology, and fifteen other symposia, each devoted to some speciitl theme. In addition there were forty individual papers, There were three evening lectures by Sir Frederic Bartlett, F.R.S., Professor E. Mira y Lopez and Professor C. PellizziB

156

COMMUNICATIONS

The Organising Committee of the London Congress are proposing to publish a volume of Proceedings which will contain papers in full presl3nted at the Major Symposia, the Opening Session and the three Evening Lectures. Summaries of the other papers will be included. The complete text of some of these papers will appear in one or other of the scientific journals, while the European Productivity Agency will be publishing twenty-one papers which are concerned with industrial psychology. At the General Meeting of the Association held during the Congress, it was decided to change the title of the Association to: “Association Internationale de Psychologie AppliquBe-International Association of Applied Psychology”. The officers of the Association were re-ele&d as follows:President: Past Presidewt: Vice President: General Secretary: Treasurer:

Dr. C. B. Frisby (Lon:don) i&on (Paris) Prof. J. Germain (Madrid) Prof. R. Bonnardel (P’aris) Dr. M. Coum6tou (Paris)

The next Congress will be held 3n Madrid in 1958 under the Presidency of Professor Jos6 Germain. Further details a’bout the London Congress and on the organisation of the next Congress in Madrid will be given in forthcoming issues of the Bulletin of the Association.