Awe & Memories of Learning in Science and Art Museums

Abstract

This study looks at the types of awe guests feel when they leave art and science cultural institutions of various sizes and context, and how it may be related to what they remember learning. We surveyed 899 guests at the end of their visit and 550 of them again about one week later. Measures included a scale of awe-related perceptions (both positive and negative) along with questions about memories guests have about what they learned during their visit. Results show awe-related perceptions were consistent across institutions with only one significant difference, even when grouped by context (art vs. science). Guests’ memories of profound educational and emotional experiences were weakly related to the amount and types of awe they felt. This connection was strongest with memories of emotional connections and being surprised. We also found connections to social experiences and that prior knowledge was a strong, consistent predictor of positive awe.

Keywords:

• Awe
• cultural
• emotion
• learning
• museums
• zoos

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge and appreciate the assistance of Alice Anderson, Kara Greven, Emily Fry, Rabia Ibtasar, Lindsay Maldonado, Rosie May, Julie Rodrigues Widholm, and Marley Steele-Inama.

Disclosure of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Results of that measure are available in Price and Greenslit (2019).

2 Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) with varimaxrotation, eigenvalues greater than 1, and maximum iterations at 25 resulted in Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin(KMO) = .955; Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity gave a χ2(1540) = 17,328, p< .001. The four factors accounted for 45.75% of the variance: awe as connecting = 15.11%, Isolating = 7.48%, physical metaphors = 1.6%, diminished self = 1.4%. CFA fits were: awe as connecting: 1.13*, Isolating = 0.153, physical metaphors = 1.13* and diminished self = 0.53*. The original SAS ended up with 18 items with factor loadings >0.4 which were used in this study (Quinn & Krenzer 2017). Subsequently, a 15-item version was designed to provide better balance between and tighter construct clarity within the four subscales (Krenzer et al., 2020), but has little impact on the psychometric properties or predictive power of the scale.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. Aaron Price

Aaron Price is the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, where he leads a team who studies the impact of the Museum on guests and the community. He has worked with museums for eight years and prior to that worked in astronomy and citizen science for 14 years. He has a PhD in Science Education from Tufts University and a BS in Astronomy.

Jana Nicole Greenslit

Jana Greenslit is the Learning & Impact Analyst at the Night Ministry, where she evaluates the organization's impact on members of the Chicago community experiencing housing instability. Prior to this position, she worked as an evaluator at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, where she conducted program evaluation and informal education research. She has a BA in Anthropology from Lawrence University, an MA in Museology from the University of Washington, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Evans School of Public Policy.

Lauren Applebaum

Lauren Applebaum is a Senior Evaluator at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, where she conducts program evaluation and informal education research. Lauren received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Chicago where she completed her dissertation on encouraging relational thinking during science and engineering activities. Following her doctoral work, she attended the University of California, Berkeley as a postdoctoral scholar in their Graduate School of Education.

Natalie Harris

Natalie Harris is the Research and Evaluation Coordinator at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. Natalie received her BA in Psychology from DePaul University in 2018. Natalie currently focuses on science and museum education, out-of-school time programs, exhibit evaluation and human subjects research oversight.

Gloria Segovia

Gloria Segovia is the Research and Evaluation Specialist at the Chicago History Museum, where she leads the Research and Evaluation department to study visitor engagement, equity research, and community impact. Prior to this, she worked as an evaluator at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, where she conducted program evaluation, community research and informal education research. She has a BA in Community Psychology and is completing her Master's in Education degree in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Kimberly A. Quinn

Kimberly Quinn is an Associate Professor of Psychological Science in the Department of Psychology at DePaul University, where she leads a lab dedicated to studying the social-cognitive and motivational dynamics of social connection. She is also interested in open science and teaches quantitative research design at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She holds a BA, MA, and PhD, all in Psychology.

Sheila Krogh-Jespersen

Sheila Krogh-Jespersen is the Assistant Director of the Developmental Mechanisms program in the Department of Medical Social Sciences, within the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Her focus of research is on action and perception across the lifespan, particularly using methods such as eye-tracking to enhance understanding of research outcomes related to social cognition. She has a PhD in Developmental Psychology and a BA in Psychology.