psychometry

Noun

psychometry (countable and uncountable, plural psychometries)

1. The paranormal ability to discover information about an object's past, and especially about its past owners, merely by handling it.
   • "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."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
   • Then there is that queer practice of the whites, psychometry, by which mediumistic people claim they can, by handling any object, tell events that occurred to the owner of it.1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 60
2. The use of psychological tests to measure intelligence, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.
   • In psychometry and paedometry his original contributions will be little unless he had equipped himself well with the subjects like mathematics and statistics.1960, Indian Journal of Psychology, XXXV-XXXVII, page 25
   • Again, barring in a few universities psychometry and physiological psychology are not regarded as compulsory papers.ibidem, page 27

   Synonyms:

   psychometrics