Paying more attention to paying attention By Beverly Serrell

In 1998, Beverly Serrell wrote Paying Attention: Visitors and Museum Exhibitions, a book supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Since then, tracking-and-timing (T&T) findings have become increasingly important and useful. In this report, Beverly Serrell presents additional data and discusses the uses, implications, and ways in which the analysis of these data can inform practitioners in the planning and evaluation of exhibitions, as well as other forms of informal science education (ISE) programs. Attracting and holding people’s attention is, obviously, a goal for most ISE endeavors.