Understanding Visitor Attention and Engagement through the Attention-Value Model

Evidence from Two Museums in Belém, PA

Abstract

Museums play an important role in preserving and presenting cultural heritage, and they shape how visitors understand it through exhibition design and interpretation. For this reason, examining how exhibitions guide attention and assign value is necessary for assessing how well they communicate. This study analyzes how exhibits at the Forte do Presépio Museum and the Arte Sacra Museum communicate with visitors, using Bitgood’s Attention-Value Model as the main analytical framework. The study adopts a mixed-methods design that brings together a bibliographic review, systematic observation, and on-site data collection through questionnaires. The questionnaires include both open- and closed-ended items and are based on the Attention-Value Model. The results suggest that both museums draw visitors’ attention at first, but limited changes in the exhibitions and a narrow range of stimuli reduce sustained attention. Full engagement with the exhibition content was recorded in just 14,2% of visitors at the Forte do Presépio Museum and 8% at the Arte Sacra Museum. Visitor engagement increased when visitors could relate the collections to their own experiences, suggesting that perceived value mediates how much attention they give. The study finds that the Attention-Value Model offers a clear way to interpret visitor engagement in the museums, and it adds empirical evidence to visitor studies by explaining how exhibition design shapes attention, perceived value, and communicative performance.