Joint Attention: Family Learning Talk in Museums

Museums facilitate free-choice learning experiences or self-guided exploration driven by one's own curiosity. The self-directed nature of these settings allows visitors to follow their own interests, build on past experiences, engage in personalized meaning-making, and create both individual as well as social learning experiences that are tailored to one's own motivations. Yet, within these self-directed contexts, multiple objects often compete for attention, resulting in a splintered focus. This can detract from what research has demonstrated are the benefits of joint attention, which occurs when people focus on the same object or subject in their surroundings. Psychologists have found that joint attention represents a critical component of language development and communication learning for infants and children, in particular.

Little research exists, however, addressing the role that joint attention plays in supporting “family learning talk” in museums. Therefore, this study's authors examined parent-child dyads (pairs) to understand better whether and how increased joint attention may lead to more family learning talk and, subsequently, enhanced learning. Through observations, voice recordings, and interviews, the authors asked: To what degree do families notice objects and establish joint attention while controlling for time spent? And once families engage in joint attention, do they engage in learning talk about the objects?

The authors describe family learning talk as conversation that surpasses simple naming and pointing out of objects; rather, learning talk occurs when family members make connections, comparisons, and explanations, or when they connect the object in question to previous experiences. To better understand family learning talk and learning within museums, the authors worked at the Carnegie Natural History Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they designed two interventions on joint attention in seven natural history diorama displays featuring fish and birds. The authors approached 54 parent-child dyads who were new to the museum; those dyads were invited to participate in the study. All of the children in the dyads were between the ages of 5 and 8.

The researchers divided the families into four equal-sized groups. For the first intervention, the authors asked 25% of the families to view the dioramas in a dark room using a flashlight, which the child controlled. They asked another 25% of the family sample to view the dioramas in a fully lit room. The researchers intended for the flashlight to enable the child to indicate clearly which object she or he was viewing; in this way, the flashlight facilitated joint attention between the child and parent.

The second intervention involved 25% of the families viewing the dioramas with signage prompts designed to promote deeper engagement with the objects. The final 25% of the families viewed the dioramas without any prompts.

Each of the participant dyads entered the diorama exhibits one at a time with a researcher. The researchers observed the families' interactions and audio recorded their conversations. The researchers also conducted a post-exhibit interview with some of the dyads. To analyze the data, the researchers coded the recordings for aspects such as noticing, joint attention, and learning talk. In addition, the researchers conducted a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the three categories for both interventions.

To examine the correlation of joint attention with family learning talk, the authors coded the recorded transcripts to whether the learning talk came before, after, or did not coincide with instances of joint attention. The researchers found that 71% of learning talk followed an instance of joint attention. By analyzing the family talk and joint attention in the self-illuminated and control groups, the researchers found that joint attention can enable learning talk, but that it may not be the only factor that enables learning talk. Finally, to understand the impact of the self-illuminated intervention, the authors conducted a stepwise regression, which indicated that the self-illuminated intervention was successful in increasing learning talk through joint attention.

Overall, the authors found that creating an exhibition where the child visitor illuminates the dioramas with a flashlight is a direct way to increase joint attention and, as a result, enhance family learning talk. Contrary to the authors' initial hypothesis, the signage prompts did not have the same effect. This perhaps may be attributed to an overload of information given the number of prompts provided and the reading required. Although this study is limited by the sample size and does not include pre- and post-treatment measures, the results may be relevant for designing museum exhibits and other similar programs that facilitate learning.