In article <[log in to unmask]>, Hank Burchard
<[log in to unmask]> says:
>
>On Mon, 10 Jun 1996, Jennifer Reed wrote:
>
>> From Catherine Lewis:
>> >
>> > Does anyone on the list know of any recent studies that discuss how long
>> > visitors spend reading labels in exhibition galleries?
>> >
>> I don't know of any specific studies, but I've heard the
>> figures 6-10 seconds many times.  Pretty unbelievable!
>
>     And I don't believe it.
>
>     Hank Burchard * <[log in to unmask]> * Washington DC | USA
>
On what evidence do you base your belief, Hank?
It would take maybe a day to gather some data from any handy museum
exhibit to get a ballpark figure. Shouldn't be too hard to move this
discussion to a more informed level.

If you include the people who just glance briefly at a label, decide not
to bother, then move on, the average time is quite low. If you graph the
frequency of times, there are a lot of these, and decreasing numbers of
visitors who spent longer times. THere are often a few people who do spend
a longish time, though. An arithmetic mean is a poor way to capture this
sort of J-curve. A survival curve is probably more apt.

Doug Hoy
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