A preliminary study of visitor behavior in museum: Taking the exhibition "Extinction: Not the End of the World?" in the Shanghai Natural History Museum as an example//% XU% Lei,% DENG% Zhuo,% ZHU% Qiao,/ GU% Jieyan

First-author's address% Shanghai Natural History Museum (Branch of Shanghai Science & Technology Museum), e-mail: xul@sstm.org.cn

Abstract% Behavior observation is an important method of visitor research in museums, and through the observation result, researchers can know visitors learning patterns and the attraction power of the exhibition. the paper used a random sample of 200 people who had visited the exhibition "extinction: Not the E nd of the World?"0 in the Shanghai Natural History Museum. Through undisturbed observation, interviews and follow-up telephone interviews, we endeavor to record the time duration and behavior of visitors’, and analyze their learning outcomes. From the behavior study, we concluded that interactive exhibits, large specimens, and the exhibits which closely related to life have

’ strong attraction power. the location of the exhibit may also affect visitor s choice.

Keywords% museum, visitor study, behavior observation, exhibit effect