psychometry

English[edit]

psychometry (countable and uncountable, plural psychometries)

(parapsychology) The paranormal ability to discover information about an object's past, and especially about its past owners, merely by handling it.
- 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
  "Their power and knowledge are as closely limited as ours. But this is not a matter for the spirit people. What I did then was psychometry, which, so far as we know, is a power of the human soul."
(psychology) The use of psychological tests to measure intelligence, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.
- 1960, Indian Journal of Psychology, XXXV-XXXVII, page 25:
  In psychometry and paedometry his original contributions will be little unless he had equipped himself well with the subjects like mathematics and statistics.
- ibidem, page 27:
  Again, barring in a few universities psychometry and physiological psychology are not regarded as compulsory papers.

paranormal ability

use of psychological tests to measure intelligence, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits