Editing B. F. Skinner (section)

=== Verbal summator ===

Early in his career Skinner became interested in "latent speech" and experimented with a device he called the ''verbal summator''.<ref name="doi_9917445">{{cite journal |last=Skinner |first=B. F. |s2cid=144303708 |year=1936 |title=The Verbal Summator and a Method for the Study of Latent Speech |journal=[[Journal of Psychology]] |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=71–107 |doi=10.1080/00223980.1936.9917445 |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-002D-7E05-E |hdl-access=free }}</ref> This device can be thought of as an auditory version of the Rorschach inkblots.<ref name="doi_9917445"/> When using the device, human participants listened to incomprehensible auditory "garbage" but often read meaning into what they heard. Thus, as with the Rorschach blots, the device was intended to yield overt behavior that projected subconscious thoughts. Skinner's interest in projective testing was brief, but he later used observations with the summator in creating his theory of verbal behavior. The device also led other researchers to invent new tests such as the tautophone test, the auditory apperception test, and the Azzageddi{{Definition|date=May 2016}} test.<ref>Rutherford, A. 2003. "B. F. Skinner and the auditory inkblot: The rise and fall of the verbal summator as a projective technique." ''[[History of Psychology (journal)|History of Psychology]]'' 4:362–78.</ref>