Introduction

Background

Situated cognition theory believes knowledge is embedded in contexts and is distributed among people, events, and artifacts in physical environments (Brown, Collins, & Dugid, 1989). Learning occurs when individuals interact to objects with distributed intelligence (Pea, 1993). Similarly, researchers in museum learning also advocated that museum learning should take contextual factors including personal, social, cultural, and physical mediation into account (Dierking, 2002). These concepts provide theoretical support to using guidebooks as tools to promote interaction between visitors and exhibits. Traditionally, museums are used to adopt audio guides for assisting visiting process. Nowadays, mobile devices, such as personal digital assistances, tablet PCs, or smart phones, are getting more popular in museum learning.

Purposes

Although there may be much potential for the application of digital guidebooks in museum learning, there are several limitations to the current studies which must be overcome (Hsi, 2003; Woodruff, Aoki, Hurst, & Szymauski, 2001; Yatani, Sugimoto, & Kusunoki, 2004). Some fundamental questions like what roles do visual/audio guidebooks play in visitors’ visiting experience in museums? How are the systems’ efficacy in promoting the interaction between visitors and exhibits? Do they change visitors’ behavioral pattern? The answers to these questions have not yet been fully explored. Regarding the above questions, this study aims to provide an in-depth analysis on visitors’ behavior and interaction when they are provided with electronic guidebooks, as compared to visitors who don’t use any tools during their visit.

Method

The experiment, taken place in the National Museum of History in Taiwan, invited 22 college students to visit the exhibition of Tri-Color Glazed Pottery. These students were randomly assigned to two different visit modes. The first visit mode was an experimental group in which the students used an electronic guidebook during their visit. Loaded into Tablet PCs, the system provided both audio and visual inputs and the background information of 20 exhibits. The second visit mode was a control group in which the students didn’t use any tools. Both of the groups were equipped with a spy video camera, which recorded data including the duration each student spent in visiting the exhibition, each student’s visiting behavior sequence, and duration of each behavior. The students’ visiting behaviors were coded into 5 categories including staring at an exhibit (S), browsing exhibits (B), referencing (R), walking (W), and other behaviors (O).

Results

The Effects on the Visitors’ Attention

Among the 61 exhibits of the exhibition, only 20 of them were selected in the guidebook to provide further information of the exhibits. Using this classification, this study was able to distinguish how the participants’ interaction to these two groups of exhibits (20 guided exhibits vs. 41 un-guided exhibits) differed.

To determine the effects of the electronic guidebook on facilitating the interaction between the participants and the exhibits, this study focused on how long each participant spent on visiting the exhibits. Using Mann-Whitney U test, the results indicated the experimental group spent longer time in visiting the exhibits, regardless whether an exhibit was selected in the electronic guidebook. The group factor was significant (z=-3.51, p<.05 in the 20 guided exhibits, z=-3.57, p<.05 in the 41 un-guided exhibits). The means and the standard deviation are shown in Table1.

Table 1

Staring Time to the Exhibits

Average Holding Time

In addition to analyzing the time each student spent on interacting to the exhibits, this study also aimed to understand each exhibit’s average holding time (AHT). AHT, proposed by Sandifer’s (2003) was defined as (Total time spent at the exhibit by engaged visitors) ÷ (Total number of engaged visitors).

The AHT of the two modes are shown in Table 2. A paired-samples t test (repeated measures) was conducted to compare the AHT of the two modes. The result indicated that the group factor was significant, t ₍₆₀₎ = 7.96, p < .01. The means showed that the exhibits attracted conspicuously longer AHT to the students using the electronic guide system.

Table 2

Average Holding Time

Visiting Behavior Patterns

After each student’s visiting behaviors were coded, the researchers were able to attain each student’s behavioral sequence during the visit. Figure 1 and 2 shows the behavioral transfer diagrams of the two visit modes. The English letters represent the abbreviation of the major behaviors. The figures show a strong link between staring at an exhibit and referencing in the experimental group representing that the students using the electronic guidebook were more attentive when interacting to the exhibits. In contrast, the control group students displayed stronger behavioral sequence between browsing exhibits and referencing. These results indicated that the experimental group displayed more in-depth interaction to the exhibits through the referencing of the guidebook, whereas the interaction of the control group to the exhibits only stayed on a surface level. Furthermore, Figure 1 shows that the visiting behavioral sequence of the experimental group was more directional and consistent, whereas the sequence of the students without the guidebook was desultory, random, and inconsistent. Theses results indicated that an audio/visual guidebook was helpful for directing participants’ visiting behaviors and could promote a more engaged visiting process.

Conclusion

     This research has two significant contributions. Firstly, it provides an empirical evidence of using mobile electronic guidebooks for supporting learning engagement. Our research findings indicate that the electronic guidebook enhances visitors’ average holding time and attention to the exhibits. Further, we provide concrete evidence that visitor’s behavior pattern may become more directional and consistent with such assistance. Secondly, our findings support the claims of situated cognition that interacting with artifacts with distributed intelligence affects the participation of the learning process.