full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Damion Searls: How does the Rorschach inkblot test work?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In 1921, Rorschach pblsueihd his coding system alongside the ten botls he felt gave the most nuanced picture of people’s perceptual approach. Over the next several decades, the test became wildly popular in ctuoneirs around the world. By the 1960s, it had been officially administered mnlilois of times in the U.S. alone. Unfortunately, less than a year after publishing the test, Hermann rccsarohh had died suddenly. Without its inventor to keep it on track, the test he had methodically gathered so much data to support began to be used in all sorts of speculative ways.

Researchers gave the test to Nazi war criminals, hoping to unlock the psychological roots of mass murder. Anthropologists swohed the images to remtoe communities as a sort of universal personality test. Employers made prejudiced hiring donsiceis based on rituevdce decoding crtahs. As the test left clinics and entered popular culture its reputation among medical professionals plummeted, and the blots bagen to fall out of clianicl use.

Open Cloze


In 1921, Rorschach _________ his coding system alongside the ten _____ he felt gave the most nuanced picture of people’s perceptual approach. Over the next several decades, the test became wildly popular in _________ around the world. By the 1960s, it had been officially administered ________ of times in the U.S. alone. Unfortunately, less than a year after publishing the test, Hermann _________ had died suddenly. Without its inventor to keep it on track, the test he had methodically gathered so much data to support began to be used in all sorts of speculative ways.

Researchers gave the test to Nazi war criminals, hoping to unlock the psychological roots of mass murder. Anthropologists ______ the images to ______ communities as a sort of universal personality test. Employers made prejudiced hiring _________ based on _________ decoding ______. As the test left clinics and entered popular culture its reputation among medical professionals plummeted, and the blots _____ to fall out of ________ use.

Solution


  1. published
  2. began
  3. countries
  4. charts
  5. showed
  6. rorschach
  7. reductive
  8. clinical
  9. blots
  10. remote
  11. millions
  12. decisions

Original Text


In 1921, Rorschach published his coding system alongside the ten blots he felt gave the most nuanced picture of people’s perceptual approach. Over the next several decades, the test became wildly popular in countries around the world. By the 1960s, it had been officially administered millions of times in the U.S. alone. Unfortunately, less than a year after publishing the test, Hermann Rorschach had died suddenly. Without its inventor to keep it on track, the test he had methodically gathered so much data to support began to be used in all sorts of speculative ways.

Researchers gave the test to Nazi war criminals, hoping to unlock the psychological roots of mass murder. Anthropologists showed the images to remote communities as a sort of universal personality test. Employers made prejudiced hiring decisions based on reductive decoding charts. As the test left clinics and entered popular culture its reputation among medical professionals plummeted, and the blots began to fall out of clinical use.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
personality test 2
healthy subjects 2
nuanced picture 2


Important Words


  1. administered
  2. anthropologists
  3. approach
  4. based
  5. began
  6. blots
  7. charts
  8. clinical
  9. clinics
  10. coding
  11. communities
  12. countries
  13. criminals
  14. culture
  15. data
  16. decades
  17. decisions
  18. decoding
  19. died
  20. employers
  21. entered
  22. fall
  23. felt
  24. gathered
  25. gave
  26. hermann
  27. hiring
  28. hoping
  29. images
  30. inventor
  31. left
  32. mass
  33. medical
  34. methodically
  35. millions
  36. murder
  37. nazi
  38. nuanced
  39. officially
  40. perceptual
  41. personality
  42. picture
  43. plummeted
  44. popular
  45. prejudiced
  46. professionals
  47. psychological
  48. published
  49. publishing
  50. reductive
  51. remote
  52. reputation
  53. researchers
  54. roots
  55. rorschach
  56. showed
  57. sort
  58. sorts
  59. speculative
  60. suddenly
  61. support
  62. system
  63. ten
  64. test
  65. times
  66. track
  67. universal
  68. unlock
  69. war
  70. ways
  71. wildly
  72. world
  73. year