Impact of research on the approach to the visiting public at the Natural History Museum, London

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Abstract
The Natural History Museum's new‐style educational exhibitions were initially based on the principles of programmed learning. Research on the first of these exhibitions, by Alt and Shaw and Griggs, looked at how visitors perceive the exhibits and what criteria they use to judge them. The results of this research, coupled with those from a variety of sources on how visitors use museums, have led to a change in approach. The most recent exhibitions, while still employing sound principles of communication and upholding the original educative purpose, are more visitor oriented. They are designed on the basis of detailed knowledge of the audience, pay attention to the entire gallery as an experience rather than concentrating on the individual exhibits, and take affective as well as cognitive objectives into account.

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