Twenty-five years ago, when the Psychometric Society was formed, the new developments that were then shaping the course of psychometric research were subjective scaling and factor analysis. Today, a development that seems destined to influence psychometric research in the next twenty-five years is the simulation of cognitive processes on high-speed digital computers. So far, of course, there has been more talk about the potential utility of computers in psychology than there has been accomplishment; nevertheless, what achievements have been made seem to me to imply a bright future.

About 27 years ago, a small group of students met with Professor Thurstone in Chicago to discuss methods of encouraging quantitative work in psychology. The initial group that was concerned about the slow rate of development of quantitative work in psychology included Jack Dunlap, Al Kurtz, Marion Richardson, John Stalnaker, G. Frederic Kuder, and Paul Horst. They had discussed the problem, had been helped a bit by Donald Paterson, and had decided that possibly if a magazine were set up to publish quantitative psychological material this would facilitate the development of the field. Persons who did good quantitative work, either theoretical or experimental, would thus have a forum where it would be accepted because it was high quality quantitative work, rather than being rejected because it was quantitative and hence “not of too great interest” to the readers.

When writing this paper as well as during our commemorative luncheon, I could not help going back in memory to two experiences. One of these occurred during the fall semester of 1935 while I was visiting professor at Northwestern University and took advantage of the opportunity and had the rare privilege of attending Thurstone’s seminar. The atmosphere at the University of Chicago at that time clearly reflected the birth and early infancy of both the Psychometric Society and its Journal Psychometrika.

The other experience comes back in the form of an image of our first annual dinner in the Inn at Dartmouth College in September 1936. The banquet had an unexpectedly large and enthusiastic attendance. Thurstone provided one of his memorable addresses, which was later published in Science, entitled “Psychology as a quantitative rational science” [35]. The address is well worth rereading.

I might spend the time alloted to me in declaiming the merits of quantitative psychology and what it has done for the progress of psychology in general. But in this group I shall take our substantial contribution for granted and try instead to help measurement psychologists look at themselves and their own progress and some of their own problems.