Calibrating Humanness: Winding Our Own Springs—Comparing Human-Generated and Machine-Generated Response Documents

The permanent exhibitions at the the National Museum of Psychology at The University of Akron, Ohio, USA, are arranged into three strands that tell a history of American psychology: the profession, the science, and the agent of social change. Visitors see historical objects and archival documents exploring such topics as the history of mental wellness treatment, immigration intelligence testing, study of behavior, gender identity, authority, sensory perceptions, animal studies, sensations, and violence. Before leaving the museum, visitors are invited to reflect on what they learned by responding to the following prompt by writing on a note card and leaving it in the exhibit: What makes us human? Since the museum opened in 2018, visitors have submitted over 3,000 responses to the exhibit.