Visitor Self-Report Behavior Mapping as a Tool for Recording Exhibition Circulation

ABSTRACT

The evaluation of visitor flow within a museum or exhibition has been a topic of interest for decades with several research approaches taken over the years. Direct observation or visitor tracking during museum occupancy is the most popular technique, but it generally requires substantial amounts of time and financial resources. An alternative approach to direct observation—visitor self-mapping—is presented using data obtained from 2 short-term, small-budget evaluations of a world-class collection museum. Results show that self-mapping provides usable data with more than 90% of maps having tracking data for the entire museum. Maps varied in the amount of detail, but more than 60% of visitors provided details beyond what was required. In Study 1, movement patterns, sweep rate indices, and timing data suggest that the mapping data accurately reflected the visitor experience. Study 2 directly paired the self-mapping method used in Study 1 with unobtrusive behavioral observations to address the reliability and validity of the new approach. A discussion compares the relative costs and benefits of the new approach with more conventional direct observation techniques and provides directions for future research.     

Career metaphors and their application in theory and counseling practice

This article, first given as an address to the January 2002 National Consultation on Career Development, Ottawa, Ontario, draws attention to the inevitability of metaphor in human thought, discourse, and theory, including that concerning careers. The article (a) explores the benefits and the dangers of metaphorical thinking and advocates the use of “multiple metaphor” as a means of understanding careers; (b) looks particularly at metaphors in the context of new, more flexible careers; (c) introduces 10 archetypal career metaphors; and (d) considers how career counseling practice can be assisted through the facilitation of metaphorical thinking.     

When is a minority a minority? Active versus passive minority advocacy and social influence

Some conceptions of minority influence have stressed the impact of the mere existence of an unpopular, deviant position. Others (e.g. Moscovici, 1980 ) have emphasized the active opposition of a committed minority to a powerful majority. An active advocate is defined as one that is aware of the level of support for his/her position, expresses his/her position openly, and whose outcomes may depend on others' agreement/disagreement. In the present study, the potential moderating role of an advocates' active/passive status on opinion change was examined. When the issue was highly relevant to the target of influence, all that mattered was the quality of the source's arguments (i.e. majority≈ minority, active source = passive source). When the issue was not highly relevant to the target, though, active and passive sources had different impact: (1) active sources prompted attention to argument quality (for minorities) and heuristic compliance (for majorities); (2) passive sources prompted insensitivity to both the popularity of the position and to the quality of the source's arguments. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formation and use of covariation assessments in the real world

In this study we examined covariation assessments made using real‐world information held by individual participants about an important preventive health behaviour: receiving an influenza vaccine (‘flu shot’). Four hundred and seventy‐seven healthy adult participants completed a questionnaire, indicating both their personal experience and vicarious experience (knowledge of other people's experiences) with the flu shot and the flu. Additionally, participants provided a covariation assessment by indicating how effective they thought the flu shot is in preventing the flu. We examined whether the experience information was related to the covariation assessment, and whether it in turn was related to the decision to receive a flu shot. Our results indicated that people use a simple intuitive strategy to combine their personal experience information. For vicarious experience information, we found evidence for use of a normative strategy, as well as simpler intuitive strategies. Consistent with our hypothesis, both types of experience information were associated with the effectiveness judgement, which was subsequently related to the decision to obtain a flu shot. Practical applications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of situational legitimacy and assertiveness-related anxiety/discomfort on motivation and ability to generate effective criticism responses

This study compares the motivation and the quality of criticism responses of 697 undergraduates who were divided into three levels of situation legitimacy (high, moderate, and low) and two levels (top versus bottom 40 percent) of anxiety related to previous generalized assertiveness behaviours. The impact of gender was also studied. The results showed the legitimacy of the situation for a critical response (preassessed with peer hold-out groups) significantly affected participants' motivation to criticize as well as the quality of their critical responses, notwithstanding the poor quality of all criticism responses. Anxiety related to previous global assertiveness was related to high motivation but not to quality of criticism responses. There were no gender effects. Results are interpreted within an avoidance learning paradigm wherein the connotative meaning of criticism is incongruent with harmonious long-term relationships so that it is suppressed until virtually forced by the specifics of highly legitimate situations.     

Movement control and maturation in elementary-grade children.

Serial tapping by 5-, 7- and 9-yr.-old boys and girls, as measured by Fitts' Law, was recorded. 60 Ss performed a reciprocal tapping task and were assessed developmentally via hand-wrist X-rays. No significant relationship was found between the fine motor task and skeletal age. The results of the motor task suggest an improvement in movement time, with age, due to an ability to plan subsequent movements rather than simply an increase in speed of arm movement.     

Normal versus deviant children

The present study investigated differences between referred and nonreferred children and their families on the basis of home and clinic observations and parent questionnaires. Subjects were 28 families with children between 4 and 8 years of age who had been referred to a clinic for actingout behavior and 28 nonreferred controls matched on several variables. Home observation results indicated that referred children showed significantly more deviant behavior and less prosocial behavior than nonreferred children and that their parents emitted more negative and commanding behavior in contrast to the control group. Systematic observation in the clinic revealed significant differences only in parent negativeness and number of commands. Finally, all five factors of the parent attitude questionnaire yielded large and significant differences between groups. There was considerable overlap between groups on all behavior variables but less overlap on the parent attitude measure. Results from a stepwise discriminant analysis classified 90% of referred children and 90% of nonreferred children correctly on the basis of the parent attitude variable alone. Taken together, these results suggest that child behavior is not always the critical variable in referral and stress the importance of multiple assessment procedures for child-family problems when children are referred for treatment.This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 19633. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Sheila Eyberg and Orin Bolstad, who assisted in the completion of various aspects of this work.     

Visual signal detection and the locus of foreperiod effects

The effect of alertness on S's sensitivity to external signals was determined by varying the foreperiod in a visual signal detection task. Discriminability increased with increasing foreperiods up to an optimal foreperiod, beyond which it decreased slightly. This pattern of results parallels closely that of many foreperiod studies in which reaction time was the dependent variable. Because no speeded response was required in this signal detection task, it was concluded that alertness must be affecting an information processing stage prior to those associated with responding. Other evidence indicates that alertness does not affect sensory stages either. Alertness, by elimination, must be affecting the operation of a central stage, Posner's view of alertness which implicates the central stages is discussed.     

Similarity and reluctance to trade

Previous research has shown that after decision makers are endowed with an object, they are reluctant to trade it for an alternative item. This endowment effect can be explained by loss aversion, the tendency to weight losses more heavily than gains. Consequently, there is no reluctance to trade when no true loss is involved. Four studies investigated whether reluctance to trade declines when the trade involves less of a loss—specifically, when one item is traded for another very similar item. Three experiments did not reveal a relation between willingness to trade and the similarity between the two items being traded. A fourth experiment, however, indicated that subjects were quite willing to trade for an identical item, less willing to trade for a similar item, and even less willing to trade for a dissimilar item. Thus, reluctance to trade decreased as the similarity between the endowment and the alternative increased. This result suggests that loss aversion is a function not only of the item being lost but also of the trade itself—that is, of the relation between the two items being traded. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.