[3] At that first meeting James McKeen Cattell, Franklin Henry Giddings, Livingston Farrand, and Franz Boaz all read papers.
Her presentation, based on her PhD thesis, reported on the mental testing of 150 children in state institutions for the “feeble-minded” and in special classes in New York City schools.
[4] Generally the meetings were not organized around a theme, with a few exceptions, such as a 1911 memorial session on William James, who had died the previous year.
For example a meeting in 1925 featured presentations by Lillian Moller Gilbreth on “Motion Study and Psychology”, Bess Cunningham on “A Report of Studies of Pre-School Children”, Henry Link on “An Experiment in the Selection of Salesmen”, and Anathon Aall on “The Problem of Animal Mind” (the last with lantern illustrations).
In 1930 two of the group’s leaders decided to address this issue and invited 360 psychologists who lived within 100 miles of New York City to a one-day meeting.
[4] On April 12, 1930, the invited psychologists, 240 in number met on the Heights campus of New York University and voted to form a scientific organization.
They also appointed an executive committee to draft bylaws and decided henceforth hold a day-long meeting in the spring.
The bylaws (published 1931) restricted membership to those who were either members or associates of APA who lived within a 100 mile radius of New York City, and who paid dues, set at $1.
[4] The bylaws established that future programs wouldn’t rule out applied research, but that members needed to present experimental results.