Traveling Psychology Exhibition (TPE) as Research Site

When a group of visitors explores the interactive Milgram exhibit, does the rest of the group follow the leader in obeying or disobeying the instructions to walk only on the black squares? Does a visit to the Psychology Exhibition affect a person's view of psychology? Do visitors stay longer and read more at the Psychology Exhibition than at other exhibitions of similar size and scope? As TPE tours the country, museum professionals and psychologists alike are recognizing that the Exhibition can provide opportunities for examining a variety of questions that relate both to the public perception of psychology and to the study of visitor behavior.

Student Research Projects

The Museum of Science in Boston solicited student research proposals for the Exhibition's February-April 1995 venue. The proposals were screened by museum staff to ensure that they would be appropriate for a museum setting. They were also reviewed by Stephen Kosslyn, PhD, of Harvard University, for questions of content and methodology. The proposals of four teams of students from the psychology seminar of Dodge Fernald, PhD, of Harvard, were accepted, and their findings were presented in a May seminar held at the Museum of Science.

The students observing visitors at the Milgram exhibit found that when the leader obeyed the instructions, most in the group obeyed as well; when the leader disobeyed the instructions, a significant number (although not a majority) of followers also disobeyed. A second group of students studying the "Mind Over Matter" exhibit had predicted that men would ignore the cold and grasp the refrigerated pipe longer than women because prior research shows that men have superior visualization skills. They found that the women in their study held on longer, but concluded that this was because visitors were not visualizing; they were distracted by talking and interacting with each other. Another group studying the behavior of younger and older women at the "Cooperation and Competition" exhibit found, contrary to their hypothesis, that older pairs of women were not more competitive than younger pairs. A fourth group of students compared adolescent peer groups and adult-adolescent groups at the "Pattern Talk" exhibit. They found some evidence to support their hypothesis that peer groups would become more involved and stay longer at the task than nonpeer groups.

Assessment of the Psychology Exhibition

TPE staff members, working with Science Directorate administration and with APA's Research Office, have developed several instruments to assess the exhibition from two perspectives. First, what impact, if any, does the exhibition have on visitors' perceptions of the field of psychology, what psychologists do, and the kinds of things they study? This line of questioning relates to the exhibition's public education goal, which is to introduce a broad general audience to concepts, tools, methods, and results of psychological research. A second set of questions investigates how visitors behave at the exhibition. Is it possible to confirm anecdotal reports from most sites that visitors read a great deal, interact with each other, and stay at the exhibition for long periods? These reports are of interest to people in the museum field because the conventional wisdom is that visitors read very little and stop for only a few minutes at most individual exhibit components.

To examine these questions, some visitors are interviewed before entering the exhibition; others are questioned when they leave. Another study involves observation and timing of visitors as they move from exhibit to exhibit. While the exhibition was at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History in the summer, several hundred entrance and exit interviews and 50 observational studies were conducted by graduate students from the University of Cincinnati under the guidance of TPE staff. Similar data will be collected this fall when the exhibition is at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, and again at venues in 1996. The Cincinnati data are currently being compiled for analysis; the results should be available soon. TPE was developed and produced by APA and the Ontario Science Centre, with support from the National Science Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Harvard University, and the National Institute of Mental Health. The Exhibition's tour is managed by the Association of Science-Technology Centers.