Chapter 6: Museum Recollections

Abstract Museum learning involves a wide range of recollections about a diverse set of experiences encountered over the course of a museum visit. Three key features are: 1) visitors “learn” about many different aspects of a visit (not just exhibits); 2) experiences are stored in memory and are recallable; and 3) learned experiences persist for long periods of time (i.e., months, years and decades). A series of pilot ethnographic style interviews were conducted. Each of eleven subjects was conversationally “walked” through his recollections. Several consistent themes ran through all the recollections: 1) Every individual interviewed can place the museum visit within a context-social, geographical and temporal; 2) Every individual interviewed has a surprisingly good recollection of how long they spent in the museum, and often what their mental state was at the time-such as being bored or harried; 3) Most individuals can recall at least a few exhibits they saw, and some specific details about them, though no...