This paper discusses the development and visitor research of the George D. Widener Memorial Treehouse at the Philadelphia Zoo. The exhibit represents a non-traditional approach to education which involves the child as learner in the guise of an animal. This paper includes key findings from an evaluation study that aimed to achieve a systematic, working description of how visitors use "Treehouse"--what they are actually doing while they are there.
This paper discusses the methodology and findings of a study that tested the impact on visitors of using life-sized animal cutouts as a background for interpretive labels. The effectiveness of these labels were examined at the "African Plains Overlook" at the North Carolina Zoo
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen BitgoodArlene BenefieldDonald PattersonHoward Litwak
This paper discusses ways exhibit labels can be used to encourage social interaction. It summarizes research related to effective labeling for family visitors at zoos as well as strategies to reach this audience more effectively with educational and/or interpretive messages.
This paper focuses on the group context of visitor behavior. It includes an introduction of a simple model of behavior that describes how human behavior is influenced by group memberships, which is central to thinking in sociology and compatible to thinking in psychology and anthropology. Suggestions on how this model can be applied to visitor studies are also described.
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood discusses an evaluation study of a "Falling Feather" gravity-themed exhibit at a science museum. Bitgood shares key findings from the evaluation, which revealed several problems with the exhibit.
Museum professionals have become increasingly interested in the behavior of their visitors--why the come, what they do while in the museum, and what they take with them from the experience. Research is beginning to provide evidence for the common-sense notion that all vistiors are not alike (e.g., Diamond, 1979; Dierking et. al., in review; McManus, 1987). The two studies reported here represent attmeps to better understand the gross outlines of family behavior in natural history museums. The first is a follow-up to an earlier study suggesting that visitors' behavior is strongly influenced by