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ERIC Number: ED044920
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1938
Pages: 31
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Behavior of the Average Visitor in the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.
Porter, Mildred C. B.
The questions investigated in this study were whether the casual Sunday-afternoon visitor followed a sequence of exhibits at the Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University) in the order intended, how much time he spent studying the exhibits, how often he read the labels, and especially, whether this arrangement prevented or even delayed "museum-fatigue." When the individual records were examined, it was found that the route taken by the average visitor was the reverse of that planned in the Guide Book; 24.4 percent of the exhibits were examined; 10.9 percent of the labels were read; and the average time taken by the visitors for reviewing the history of life on the earth during the past 500,000,000 years was 21.40 minutes. Conclusions arising from a behavior inventory of visitors and from a leaflet experiment were: (1) that mere juxtaposition of exhibits in a logical sequence does not, by itself, guarantee their examination by the casual Sunday-afternoon visitor in the order intended, and (2) that the visitors benefited from the use of the leaflets to an extent that was statistically significant. (Author/MF)
Publication Type: N/A
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: American Association of Museums, Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Yale Univ., New Haven , CT. Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A