The National Museum of Psychology’s “Psychology Takes Flight” exhibit opened on Feb. 5. The exhibit highlights the work of psychologists in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II with various displays and interactive activities.
“If you were in World War II and you had applied to be in the Army or Army Air Forces, what were the first steps that you would have to go through?” asked Dr. Jennifer Bazar, the Assistant Director at the Cummings Center. “You’d have to do this huge test that was developed by psychologists.”
The exhibit includes both interactive and non-interactive displays. Visitors can test themselves with sample questions from the WWII assessments, measure their height to see what role they would have been assigned, and examine genuine testing apparatus from the era, among other features.
“Some of them are just like pen-and-paper, you know, multiple-choice-style tests,” Bazar explained. “Others are these psychophysical tests where you’re actually sort of sitting in an apparatus or standing beside an apparatus and maneuvering it.”
The University of Akron students, faculty, and staff can visit the exhibit and the rest of the museum for free. The museum is open on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Readers seeking more information on the museum, “Psychology Takes Flight,” or other exhibits can visit the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology’s website at https://www.uakron.edu/chp/.
