On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Jeff Kupperman wrote:

> According to _The Museum Experience_ (1992: J. Falk and L. Dierking,
> p.70+), there have been studies by Falk (1983: _Roundtable Reports_, 7(4),
> p.10-13) and Borun (1980: "What's in a name?", Philadelphia: The Franklin
> Institute Science Museum), among others, that touch upon the label reading
> time.  The studies suggest that although the _average_ time is indeed 8 or
> 10 seconds,  label reading in fact falls into 2 patterns:  (1) glancing at
> the label for only a second or two, and (2) reading seriously for a minute
> or so.  These studies suggest that serious label readers are a small (10
> percent or so) minority, but Paulette McManus in _What Research Says about
> Learning in Science Museums_ argues that over 2/3 of visitors in a study at
> the British Museum got significant information from labels.  She argues
> that it is very hard to tell whether people are reading or not, and short,
> casual glances at text can be surprizingly educational.

     Best input on this thread so far.

     Hank Burchard * <[log in to unmask]> * Washington DC