There is more to touch than meets the eye: haptic exploration in a science museum

ABSTRACT

Previous research from in and outside museums suggests that the haptic exploration of surfaces and objects have various educational benefits and can positively influence the museum visit experience. However, there is still a need for more research on the potential effects of object handling on museum learning, especially in science museums. The present study attempts to fill this research gap by investigating differences in museum visitors’ science learning when presenting them with photos of objects, real objects, or objects that can be handled. We used a multi-criteria approach in which we examined both cognitive and motivational-affective aspects. We found that the participants who were allowed to haptically explore the exhibition's objects showed a higher recollection of the objects and accompanying text topics and reported a higher perceived autonomy compared to the participants in the other two experimental conditions. Unexpectedly, for situational interest as well as for positive and negative affect, the participants in the photo-condition reported higher values than the participants in the other two conditions. Implications for instructional uses of tangible objects and further directions for research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Object handling
• science learning
• real objects

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the project partners from the Deutsches Museum – Feliza Ceseña, Dr. Sabine Gerber-Hirt, Prof. Dr. Annette Noschka-Roos – for the collaboration and their support. We also thank Miriam Ittlinger, Benedict Ohmann and Veronika Stampfl for their assistance with the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research foundation under Grant (number SCHW 706/6-1 and LE 1303/12-1); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The visitor study described in this paper is part of the DFG knowledge transfer project ‘Conveying Conflicting Scientific Topics in Exhibitions’. The DFG is the self-governing research funding organisation in Germany. The main goal of the project is to investigate how conflicting information can be presented in museum exhibitions.