Using Web Surveys in Summative Evaluations: A Case Study at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the use of a post-visit web survey to assess how visitor reactions to the exhibition Sharks: Myth and Mystery at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The web survey was used to supplement on-site observations and interview data. A total of 598 visitors shared their e-mail addresses with the aquarium so they could participate in the survey, and 61% of successfully delivered e-mails elicited responses yielding 314 completed surveys. Results from the web survey showed that visitors could recall specific aspects of the exhibition four months after their visit, with more than one-third (37%) of visitors able to cite an occurrence in their day-to-day lives that had reminded them of the exhibition. In addition, the majority of visitors (59%) recalled speaking to someone else about the exhibition since their visit. When prompted, many visitors (44%) were also able to recall specific conservation content presented in the exhibition. This case study demonstrates that web surveys can provide the field of visitor studies with a viable method for gathering post-visit data and highlights additional design tips for evaluators.     

Semantic Determinants and Psychology as a Science

One central but unrecognized strand of the complex debate between W. V. Quine and Donald Davidson over the status of psychology as a science turns on their disagreement concerning the compatibility of strict psychophysical, semantic-determining laws with the possibility of error. That disagreement in turn underlies their opposing views on the location of semantic determinants: proximal (on bodily surfaces) or distal (in the external world). This paper articulates these two disputes, their wider context, and argues that both are fundamentally misconceived. There is no special tension between error and strict semantic-determining laws; moreover, the purported bearing of that issue on the dispute over the location of semantic determinants depends upon a mistaken conception of the relation between the nomic status of generalizations and degree of distance between explanans and it explananda. Finally, the wider significance of these conclusions for related contemporary debates is noted. And independent considerations about the possibility of communication, also present in Quine's and Davidson's thinking, are brought to bear on the question of the location of semantic determinants. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Individualism,Normativity and the Epistemology of Understanding

Philosophical Studies -     

The Motive for Sensory Pleasure: Enjoyment of Nature and Its Representation in Painting,Music, and Literature

ABSTRACT Eight studies assessed the motive for sensory pleasure (MSP) involving a general disposition to enjoy and pursue pleasant nature‐related experiences and avoid unpleasant nature‐related experiences. The stated enjoyment of pleasant sights, smells, sounds, and tactile sensations formed a unitary construct that was distinct from sensation seeking, novelty preference, and need for cognition. MSP was found to be related to (a) enjoyment of pleasant nature scenes and music of high but not low clarity; (b) enjoyment of writings that portrayed highly detailed nature scenes; (c) enjoyment of pleasantly themed paintings and dislike of unpleasant paintings, as distinct from findings with Openness to Experience; (d) choice of pleasant nature scenes over exciting or intellectually stimulating scenes; (e) view duration and memory of artistically rendered quilts; (f) interest in detailed information about nature scenes; and (g) frequency of sensory‐type suggestions for improvement of a museum exhibit.     

Rationality and the Argument for Anomalous Monism

Philosophical Studies -