Paying Attention: Visitors and Museum Exhibitions

Representing the largest multiple-site museum research to date, this report contains the methods, results, and implications of a study of visitor behavior in educational exhibitions. It includes an easy-to-use method for assessing the impact of exhibitions by examining the amount of time visitors spend in exhibits and where they pay attention. The author discusses a database that tracks the length of time people spend in exhibitions and where they stop, defines variables, and presents two new indexes for comparing visitor use of exhibitions. Case studies show how the indexes have been used to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of exhibitions.