Maney Publishing

Beyond "Aha!": Motivating Museum Visitors

Author(s): Marlene Chambers
Source: The Journal of Museum Education, Vol. 14, No. 3, Common Agendas (Fall, 1989), pp. 14-
15
Published by: Maney Publishing
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40478823
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 flow:(1) thetasksmustbe equal to one's presentabilityto
WhatResearchSaysaboutLearningin perform,(2) attentionmust be centeredon a limited
ScienceMuseums stimulusfield,and (3) usually,theexperiencemustcontain
"coherent,noncontradictory demands for action and
Amongtherewards

Beyond"Aha!":
provideclear,unambiguousfeedback."
ofa flowexperiencearea senseofbeingfreedfromnormal
cares,a sense of being competentand in controlof the
Museum
Motivating
situation,a sense of discovery,and a sense of personal
enrichment.

Visitors Obviously,museum-going is a freelychosen activity,

withno otherrewardthantheactivityitself.Ifwe regard
experiencesin museumsas varieties offlowexperience, we
MarleneChambers gain a keyto creatingconditionsthatmake themmore
rewarding.5 By offering challengesequal to the novice's
current skills,we can facilitate discoveries thatsharein the
natureoftheexpert'sflowexperience.6
Whatkindofexperienceisuniquelyavailablein science
museumsthatparallelsthe estheticexperienceartmuse-
ums offer?As a scienceamateur,I thinkthismustbe the
experienceoftheprocessofscience.Yet,byrigidly control-
THE "AHA!"EXPERIENCESMANY SCIENCE MUSEUMS
ling the outcome of its "discovery" activities,the science
now offervisitorsresembletraditionalscienceeducation
museumreallyoffers visitors demonstrations calculatedto
demonstrations thatare drivenby the information they - illustrated
purportto teach, ratherthan by visitors7motivational "prove"established factsorprinciples examples
of what one should know ratherthan opportunities to
needs. Researchthathas led to a new experience-driven
explore what science is or how itworks.7 As long as science
interpretivemodel forartmuseumsmayalso have some-
fruitful
to sayto sciencemuseums. museumscontinueto tietheir"aha!" experiencesdirectly
thing to teachingspecificfactsor principles, theirexhibitswill
In 1986,MeloraMcDermottundertookresearchat the
DenverArtMuseumto identify the natureof artnovices' remaininformation driven,not experiencedriven.
estheticexperiencesso we couldunderstandhow thesere- Aninherent, indispensable componentoftheprocessof
sembledand differed fromthoseofexperts.1 scienceis the "clinker"fact,information thatcannotbe
Byanalyzing basedon current
novices'perceptions oftheirartexperiences,
we identified explainedbyhypothesis acceptedtheory.
skillsandattitudes ThomasKuhn'sviewof scientific revolutions emphasizes
theyneedtodevelopiftheirexperiences theroleofsuchanomalies- "violationsofexpectations" -
withartobjectsareto be enriched.McDermott'sstudyhas
allowedus to takenovices'preconceptions in creatingcrisesthatlead to newperspectives.8 Failuresof
and preferences
about art into account as we develop experience-driven expectation,withthe opportunities theypresentfornew
materials.2 conjectureand refutation, seemto be centraltothekindof
interpretive
experiencea sciencemuseumcouldoffer itsvisitors.To set
up an "aha!" experience in which there is only one right
"Scienceis a methodfortesting
claims answeris to betraytheprocessofscience.Surelyvisitors to
a sciencemuseumdeserveto confrontexhibitsthathelp
about thenaturalworld,notan themactuallyexperiencethe forceof one of StephenJay
immutablecompendium ofabsolute Gould'srecurring themes:"Scienceis a methodfortesting
truths/' claimsaboutthenaturalworld,notan immutable compen-
diumof absolutetruths."9
Ourunderstanding ofthekindofexperiencewewantto If science museumswere to definethe goal of their
exhibitsand interpretive devicesas facilitating a specifi-
promoteand the conditionsnecessaryto promoteit has "how science works" as a
also been guidedby the esthetictheoriesof philosopher cally discovery varietyof the
MonroeBeardsley3 and by an intrinsic-motivationmodel scienceexpert'sflowexperience, theselectionofinforma-
based on the researchof behavioralpsychologistMihaly tionalcontentwouldbe at once easierand morerigorous.
Information offered ina scienceexhibitwouldhavetopass
Csikszentmihalyi. Lookingforthe rootsof motivation, the testof contributing to the visitor'sexperienceof the
Csikszentmihalyi examinedthe way expertsin intrinsi-
way science works. Such information could be used to
cally rewardingactivitieslike rock climbingand chess
describetheirexperiences.4He foundthatthe experience suggestproblemsoroffer cluesto theirresolution.Itcould
of "flow"- a termtheseexpertsfrequently use to describe be the"clinker"thatdemandsa reexamination ofconclu-
"the deep involvementand effortless sionsor theories.But,above all, it would not itselfbe the
progression"they
feelwhenan activitygoeswell- is whatmotivatesthemto goal ofthatexperience.
One of the dangersI have foundin settingup esthetic
spendtimedoingsomethingthathas no rewardotherthan
theact itself. discovery experiencesin an artmuseumis thetendencyto
want to controlthe specificcontentof the discovery
Csikszentmihalyisinglesoutthreeconditionscriticalto visitorsmake- a quite normal desire for anyone in a
teachingrole.It is difficult to pointthewayto a challenge
open-endedenough to be met by a wide rangeof skill
Marlene Chambers is publications directorat the Denver Art levels- one thatallowsfora variety ofdiscoveries. Butitis
Museum. even moredifficult to remember thattheultimategoal of

14 / Journal
ofMuseumEducation

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providinga discoveryopportunity is to givethe visitora
flowexperience: a senseofbeingcompetentand in control
and a chanceto findnew,personally insightsin
significant
theactivity.
After all,thesefeelings - notthe
ofsatisfaction
informationlearned - motivaterepeat experienceand
continuedlearning.

ResourcePeople
MarleneChambersand Melora McDermott,DenverArt
Museum,Denver,Colorado

Notes
1. Melora McDermott, "Through Their Eyes: What Novices
Value in ArtExperiences,"in Annual MeetingProgramSourcebook
(Washington, D.C.: American Association of Museums, 1988),
pp. 133-62.

2. Marlene Chambers, "Improving the Esthetic Experience for

ArtNovices: A New Paradigm forInterpretiveLabels," in ibid.,
pp. 213-27; Chambers, "To Create Discovery/' Museum News
68, no. 3 (May/June1989): 41-44.

3. Monroe C. Beardsley,The EstheticPointof View,ed. Michael

J. Wreen and Donald M. Callen (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univer-
sityPress, 1982).

4. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,BeyondBoredomand Anxiety:The

ExperienceofPlay in Workand Games (San Francisco:Jossey-
Bass, 1975).

5. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,Rick E. Robinson et al., "The Artof

Seeing: Toward an InterpretivePsychologyof the Visual Experi-
ence," unpublished research report,J. Paul Getty Foundation,
July1986; Chambers, "To Create Discovery."

6. Chambers, "Improving the Esthetic Experience."

7. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,"Human Behavior and the Science

Center," in ScienceLearningin theInformalSetting,ed. Paul G.
Heltne and Linda A. Marquardt (Chicago: Chicago Academy of
Sciences, 1988), pp. 79-87.

ofScientificRevolutions,2d ed.
8. Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure
(Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1970).

9. Stephen JayGould, "An Essay on a Pig Roast," NaturalHis-

tory98 (January1989): 60.

This article is the second in a 10-partseries published by the

Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and funded
by the Instituteof Museum Services. ASTC is disseminat-
ing the articlesin collaboration with the Museum Education
Roundtable, the International Association of Educators, the
Association of Youth Museums, the International Laboratory
forVisitorStudies, and the American Association of Botani-
cal Gardens and Arboreta.Coordinating editor forthe series is
BeverlySerrell.Single copies of the articlesare available for
$1 each fromASTC, 1413 K St., NW, Tenth Floor, Washington,
D.C. 20005.

Volume14, Number3 Fall 1989 / 15

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