SELECTIVITY
Attention i s s elective i n t he s ense t hat some t hings
capture our attention while others do not, and in the
sense that we can attend (generally) to only one
thing at a time. If visitors can attend to only one exhibit
element at a time, what will it be? Capturing
v isitor a ttention i s t he f irst s tep i n t he process o f
communicating the educational message. Visitors
must first pay attention to a label before it has any
chance of delivering any kind of message.
Two obvious factors in capturing attention are
the salience or distinctiveness of the exhibit element
and the traffic flow patterns in the environment.
The more salient the element, the more likely it will
be noticed. Traffic flow also influences whether an
exhibit element will be detected: Objects in locations
along the pathway taken by visitors have a
reasonable chance of being seen, whereas those outside
the pathway have almost no chance of receiving
attention.