Motivational Factors and the Visitor Experience: A Comparison of Three Sites

Museums, art galleries, botanical gardens, national parks, science centers, zoos, aquaria and historic sites are important public learning institutions. The free‐choice learning offered in these settings is closely linked to visitors' intrinsic motivation, making it important to understand the motivational factors that impact on visitors' experiences. This paper presents data from a questionnaire administered to visitors at three sites: a museum, an art gallery, and an aquarium. Similarities and differences among the sites are reported in relation to visitors' expectations, perceptions of learning opportunities, engagement in motivated learning behaviors, and perceptions of the learning experience. The importance of learning to museum visitors and the unique opportunities and challenges of the museum in relation to other educational leisure settings are discussed. The authors argue that the study of motivational factors might contribute to the development of a common theoretical foundation for interpretation in museums and other informal learning settings.     

Behavior vs. Time: Understanding How Visitors Utilize the Milan Natural History Museum

Abstract To evaluate visitors' use of the exhibitions and the communication strategy of the Milan Natural History Museum, we compared results gathered with two methods, based respectively on the timing of visitors and on the unobtrusive observation of exhibit‐use behaviors. We collected data from a sample of 100 groups of visitors (not guided), randomly selected at the museum entrance. We recorded the following data for each group: halls visited, length of stay in each hall, any kind of behavior showing visitor/exhibition interaction and the displays where interactions occurred. The study shows that visiting time does not give enough information about the actual use of exhibits by the audience. The investigation of visitor/exhibition interactions revealed itself to be the most usual method to describe the visitors' use of the exhibitions. The most important factor influencing visits to the Milan Natural History Museum is the communication technique used in the exhibition areas.     

Signs Fail to Increase Zoo Visitors' Ability to See Tigers

ZOO exhibits have fairly high attractive power, but often do not engage visitors or hold their attention for long. A drawback of naturalistic zoo exhibits is the frequent inability of zoo visitors to find the animals, as increased animal visibility increases visitor stay time and engagement. Even visible animals can be difficult for visitors to find unaided. In this study, signs pointing out the animals' locations were added to a tiger exhibit at Zoo Atlanta, but they did not increase the number of visitors who found the tigers in the exhibit While the signs were accurate in pointing out the tigers' locations (due to the high predictability of the tigers' resting habits), very few visitors reported even using the signs. Interviews with visitors indicated that visitors did not read the signs, and that animal activity and children's ability to see animals may affect visitors' self‐reports of ability to find tigers.     

Using special events to motivate visitors to attend art galleries

The contemporary directions of art galleries worldwide are changing as social patterns and demands, as well as visitor expectations of their experiences at art galleries, change. New programs and strategies are being developed in galleries to make these institutions more appealing to people who would not normally visit them, and one such strategy is the staging of special events. However, because galleries are staging an increasing number of special events, the factors motivating visitors to attend these institutions are changing. Visitors hope to have different experiences and encounters in the gallery during special events. This paper presents the findings from a study in Australia about visitors’ motivations to attend special events in galleries. It highlights the different factors that motivate visitors to attend the gallery specifically for a special event in comparison to visiting the gallery's permanent collections.     

Visitor Meaning‐Making at Grand Canyon's Tusayan Museum and Ruin

Abstract Meaning‐making describes a process by which visitors transform museum experiences into new knowledge and memories. Meaning‐making is influenced by visitors' leisure motivations, prior knowledge, socio‐cultural context brought to the experience, personally‐guided interpretation, and events since the visit. In this study, visitors' long‐term recollections included contextual references to how and why they remembered what they experienced. Forty visitors were interviewed by telephone six months after attending a Native American interpretive program at Grand Canyon National Park's Tusayan Museum. Two patterns associated with a constructivist view of meaning‐making were discerned: a) visitors' integration of indoor and outdoor exhibits and b) visitors' comparisons of modern family and community with a more ancient culture. The presence of contextual indicators within visitor recall suggests that new knowledge may be constructed from factors carried forth from the meaning‐making process. Evidence within the data suggests that exhibits made more relevant to visitors' socio‐cultural identity may enhance on‐site experiences.     

Gaining Visitor Consent for Research III: A Trilingual Posted‐Sign Method

When studying museum visitors, researchers sometimes collect data by video‐ and audio‐taping large high‐traffic areas. In order to inform visitors that they are being recorded, researchers post signs in the area. This article describes the Exploratorium's efforts to design and test trilingual signs that would effectively inform visitors when video‐based research is in progress. Interviews with 255 adult museum visitors, conducted across six versions of the recording area's setup and signage, revealed several effective design elements. The posted sign was more noticeable and welcoming when it included a large headline, a realistic camera icon, and a colorful background. The most effective setup of the area contained many cues to videotaping beyond the large posted sign, such as visible recording equipment and small signs on exhibits and cordons. In the most successful trilingual setup we tested, 92% of visitors leaving the research area knew they had been videotaped.     

What the Zoo Should Ask: The Visitor Perspective on Pro‐wildlife Behavior Attributes

Abstract Zoos have some choice about which pro‐wildlife behaviors to ask their visitors to do, but with this freedom comes the difficult task of choosing behaviors that are appropriate, effective, and that do not affect visitors’ experiences. This paper presents attributes of pro‐wildlife behaviors that emerged from self‐completed questionnaires administered to 114 zoo visitors. Questions sought to elicit attributes that visitors felt should be considered in the behavior selection process. The results say that behaviors should: have an on‐site option; be new, or if known, include new learning that underpins why they are needed; be easy to do; and have a clear link between the behavior and how it helps wildlife. Respondents also made comments about specific behaviors as well as how behaviors should or should not be requested. We suggest that visitors’ perspectives be incorporated into pro‐wildlife behavior selection in zoos, and we propose that these findings may be relevant beyond zoos.     

集自然历史、世界文化于一身的皇家安大略博物馆

皇家安大略博物馆融合自然历史和世界文化于一身,藏品超过1250万件,大量开展国际范围的研究。2017年参观人数超过130万人次。该馆设有27个永久的世界文化和自然历史展厅、2个儿童动手实践探索展厅和4个用于临时展览的展区。该馆收集了两只鲸鱼的骨架,将其中一只鲸鱼的心脏做塑化处理后在主展厅展出,将在加拿大各地和其他国家和地区进行巡回展出。     

Stay Behind the Yellow Line: Young Children Constructing Knowledge from an Art Exhibition

Studies exploring very young children visiting museums and art galleries are few. The majority of research about museum and gallery visitors explores family group interactions. This paper examines the findings of a study involving three‐ and four‐year‐old children visiting an art exhibition in a national museum on more than one occasion. The children's construction of knowledge about being a museum visitor and exhibitor indicates their ability to develop an appreciation of art and an understanding of the purposes of museums and art galleries.     

Paying Attention: The Duration and Allocation of Visitors' Time in Museum Exhibitions

The amount of time visitors spend and the number of stops they make in exhibitions are systematic measures that can be indicators of learning. Previous authors have made assumptions about the amount of attention visitors pay to exhibitions based on observations of behavior at single exhibits or other small data samples. This study offers a large database from a comparative investigation of the duration and allocation of visitors' time in 108 exhibitions, and it establishes numerical indexes that reflect patterns of visitor use of the exhibition. These indexes—sweep rate (SRI) and percentage of diligent visitors (%DV)—can be used to compare one exhibition to another, or to compare the same exhibition under two (or more) different circumstances. Patterns of visitor behavior found in many of the study sites included: (1) visitors typically spend less than 20 minutes in exhibitions, regardless of the topic or size; (2) the majority of visitors are not “diligent visitors”—those who stop at more than half of the available elements; (3) on average, visitors use exhibitions at a rate of 200 to 400 square feet per minute; and (4) visitors typically spend less time per unit area in larger exhibitions and diorama halls than in smaller or nondiorama exhibitions. The two indexes (SRI and %DV) may be useful measures for diagnosing and improving the effectiveness of exhibitions, and further study could help identify characteristics of “thoroughly-used” (i.e., successful) exhibitions.     

‘The feeling of exclusion’: Young peoples' perceptions of art galleries

This article first looks at the relationship between museums and art galleries and their potential audiences and, in particular, the under-represented sector of young visitors. It examines the main findings from the limited research available on young visitors, and goes on to discuss theories delineating the differences between the cultures, identities and values of culture consumers and culture providers. The second part of the article looks at what specific museums have done towards being more inclusive in their appeal, and then reports the findings of a survey of young people in relation to New Zealand's Auckland Art Gallery. The survey found that young people's ideas of what constitutes modern, relevant art do not match standard art criteria, and that most exhibitions and marketing methods do not mesh with their worldview. The article concludes by using data from the survey to suggest ways of engaging more young people with public art galleries.     

Visitor Comments as Dialogue

Museum use is a process of ideological negotiation, and thus museum users are active agents, not empty vessels waiting to be filled with curatorial narrative. Ensuing dialogues argue over trivia as well as important ethical issues. Discussants take up topics that range over specific public programs, the object maker's motivations and intentions, the choice of a subject, the phrasing of a caption, or the selection of objects on display. These discussions are held in hushed conversations in crowded galleries, in casual conversations within museum hallways, or with animated gestures on the front steps. In the course of this dialogic social practice, each participant's cultural repertoire is enhanced and grows. Every dialogic event is part of a socio‐cultural continuum that will engender other events, with other participants. The comments made by visitors in a visitor comment book are therefore instances of the specificities and the universality of that discussion.     

The Economics of Interactivity

Abstract The increasing use of interactivity obliges museums to make decisions about the most appropriate interpretive strategies for exhibitions and experiences. Interpretive strategies have immediately apparent costs for an institution, as well as other less obvious implications. Interactive exhibits generally cost significantly more to develop, design, fabricate, and operate. There also are other, non‐quantifiable costs. For instance, environments might be very appealing to some visitors but less appealing to others. Some activities may inhibit social interaction among visitors. There is a danger that broken interpretive exhibits may convey a perception of low confidence in the museum, or that obsolete technologies may suggest inadequacy (especially in a science presentation). Finally, interactive exhibits that don't function optimally may create internal and public uncertainty about the core mission of the museum.     

Creating a Program to Deepen Family Inquiry at Interactive Science Exhibits

Abstract A common goal of science museums is to support the public in science inquiry by engaging groups of visitors with interactive exhibits. This article summarizes the efforts of a team of researchers and practitioners to extend and deepen such inquiry by explicitly coaching families in the skills of scientific inquiry at interactive exhibits. The first phase of the project, reported here, involved designing a “best case” program that worked for small groups of casual visitors under ideal circumstances, facilitated by an experienced educator in a quiet laboratory near the public floor. The final program, called Inquiry Games, taught visitors to sandwich their spontaneous physical experimentation between two additional phases: asking a question to drive their investigation at the beginning; and interpreting the results of their investigation at the end. Provisional evaluation data suggest that the Inquiry Games improved visitors' inquiry behavior in several ways and was rated as very enjoyable by them. Encouraged by these indicators, we suggest ways in which this program might be implemented on the open museum floor.     

Impact of National Aquarium in Baltimore on Visitors' Conservation Attitudes,Behavior, and Knowledge

This study at the National Aquarium in Baltimore (NAIB) was conducted to assess four key aspects of the visitor experience: (1) incoming conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of NAIB visitors; (2) patterns of use and interaction with exhibition components throughout the NAIB; (3) exiting conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of visitors; and (4) over time, how the NAIB experience altered or affected individuals' conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Three hundred six visitors participated in the study, which was conducted from March through July, 1999. The study utilized four data‐collection techniques: (1) face‐to‐face interviews, (2) Personal Meaning Mapping (PMM), (3) tracking, and (4) follow‐up telephone interviews. Participants were a self‐selected population and were generally more knowledgeable about, more concerned about, and more involved in conservation‐related issues than the general public. However, they were far from conservationists. Visitors in this study clearly absorbed the fundamental conservation message at the NAIB. In fact, the NAIB visit appeared to focus visitors' conservation‐related thoughts, while also broadening their understanding of conservation. Changes in visitors' conservation knowledge, understanding, and interests by and large persisted over six to eight weeks after visiting NAIB. The NAIB experience also connected to visitors' lives in a variety of ways following their visit. However, these personal experiences rarely resulted in new conservation actions. In fact, their enthusiasm and emotional commitment to conservation (inspired during the NAIB visit) generally fell back to original levels, presumably in the absence of reinforcing experiences. The findings of this study are guiding subsequent investigations at the NAIB. More generally, the results suggest strategies to enhance current understanding of the impact free‐choice learning institutions have on their visiting public.     

Memories of Math: Visitors' Experiences in an Exhibiton about Calculus

Abstract Handling Calculus is a set of interactive exhibits about mathematics developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota and TERC. The exhibits are designed to engage visitors with kinesthetic, application‐oriented, and concept‐focused approaches to calculus and pre‐calculus concepts. As we examined visitor interviews collected during the evaluation of Handling Calculus, it was striking how often respondents' experiences with the exhibits stimulated memories they associated with school math. Respondents recognized math terms and symbols, reconstructed graphing skills, and recalled fragmentary concepts they had learned in school. In addition, they recounted stories about their former math teachers and the ways in which they had been taught mathematics, as well as a range of both positive and negative emotions they associated with school math. Respondents recognized and valued the hands‐on and whole‐body approaches used in Handling Calculus, contrasting the exhibits with their paper‐and‐pencil school experiences. Some respondents wondered if they would have done better at school calculus if their teachers had used the approaches taken by Handling Calculus.     

课堂提问框架在自然博物馆讲解中的运用

博物馆讲解中的提问互动,在吸引观众注意力、激发观众兴趣、引起观众思考、加深观众对展览理解方面发挥着重要的作用。本文利用课堂教学研究常用的提问框架分析了两位自然博物馆教育人员讲解过程中的提问类型、观众回答情况和教育人员的反馈方式。发现教育人员有比较强烈的提问互动意识,能够围绕展品和讲解主题提问,但还存在问题层次性不明显、对观众认知水平分析不够、各类问题比例不均衡、候答时间过短、提问反馈中有效追问和鼓励不足等问题。可以通过设置核心问题、基于观众认知水平控制问题难度、增加问题多样性、适时调控候答时间、在提问反馈中追问并增加评价性语言等方法提升提问的有效性。     

观众究竟在博物馆里参观到了什么？

在当今社会,博物馆为提升全民素质起到越来越重要的作用。为了更好地发挥博物馆的社会教育功能,博物馆馆员在教育活动设计或者展览设计的过程中有必要了解观众的参观需求以及参观偏好。因此,为了体现“以观众为中心”的工作理念,作者从“观众”的视角,对一次博物馆的参观体验进行观察和反思。本次探索发现,由于观众自身所处的社会文化背景的差异,他们面对同一件展品有着不同的关注点和兴趣点。这种差异性提醒博物馆馆员在与观众进行互动的过程中,需要了解观众的不同需求和不同偏好。并且,这种参观视角的多样性也为博物馆的教育工作提供了创意的源泉。     

All the (Natural) World's a Stage: Museum Theater as an Educational Tool

This paper describes a range of theatrical events developed by the Education Unit of the Natural History Museum, London. Theater is used to target non‐traditional audiences, thereby helping meet the museum's educational mandate in innovative ways. The museum's galleries have recently hosted a variety of characters, traditional and contemporary, historical and fictional, in a number of dramatic formats: ensemble pieces, role‐playing, puppetry, dance, mime, and acrobatics. The examples described here provide the occasion for exploring related issues, such as the museum's overall objectives for the program, the responses of visitors, and the spatial and temporal limitations to the design process.     

Communication and Persuasion in a Didactic Exhibition: The Power of Maps Study

This article describes a study of The Power of Maps, an exhibition presented in 1992 at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York City. The study compared the result of surveys administered to visitors at the Cooper-Hewitt as they entered and exited the exhibition with a control group of surveys administered to visitors at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, who had not seen The Power of Maps exhibition. It was found that visitors who were surveyed as they entered the exhibition were closer in agreement with the message of the exhibition than the control group. It was also found that visitors surveyed upon exiting The Power of Maps exhibition were in closer agreement with the message of the exhibition than with visitors who were surveyed as they entered the exhibition. The study demonstrates that it is possible to document a change in visitors' conceptions about a topic as a result of hearing about or visiting an exhibition and reliably determine the degree to which exhibitions can influence visitors.