How People Learn 

Memory

Three types of memory are important for learning and recall of written information.⁷

Visual Information Store (VIS)

VIS refers to images stored on the retina of the eye. The amount of information that can enter VIS is large — whatever is in the visual field. Information can be quickly absorbed into and retrieved from VIS. However, it is retained in VIS only one or two seconds; then it is superseded by new information and is lost.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Information in VIS can be processed into STM. Input and retrieval are fast, but the capacity of STM is small — on average, only seven chunks.
The term chunk is used by developmental psychologists who study the learning process. For good readers, the sentence "I went out and danced all night" is seven chunks, since they immediately recognize each word as an entity. But for poor readers, "danced" is six chunks in itself, because they need to recognize each letter in order to comprehend the word. So, although the number of chunks that STM can hold is small, the amount of information in each chunk increases as reading ability improves and knowledge of the subject expands.
Without rehearsal (such as rereading or recapitulation), a single chunk of information is retained in STM for no more than 20 seconds. When memory load is increased to three chunks, average survival time without rehearsal falls to 3 seconds. Thus a single chunk has between 3 and 20 seconds to reach Long-Term Memory (LTM). The ideal label facilitates the transfer of information from STM to LTM by limiting the amount of information and providing opportunities for rehearsal.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Entry of information into LTM is slow and requires considerable rehearsal. Once stored, however, the information is normally retained for life within the vast storage capacity of LTM.
Nothing enters LTM from STM unless it can be related, however tangentially, to something already in LTM. Label writers must remember this and try to connect objects and artistic concepts to visitors' experience and knowledge. Knowledgeable museum visitors can process larger new chunks than beginners: they have more chunks already stored in LTM to which the new information can be attached.

Attention

Attention is the mental effort —looking, reading, listening, thinking, understanding, learning, and recalling — necessary for processing information. If the information is new (as label information is for many museum visitors), then focused attention is required, first to decode the information and then to comprehend it. Too much information diffuses attention and thereby inhibits learning.

Barriers to Learning and Memory

Visitors to museums are faced with a barrage of new information. They must orient themselves within the building, select among a wide choice of exhibits, and read the accompanying didactic information. Much of this information is unfamiliar, so visitors do not know what is important for them to read (artist's name, label text) and what is not (accession number, credit line). When too much unfamiliar information is encountered in too short a time, a bottleneck forms between STM and LTM. The pace at which most visitors move through the museum does not allow adequate rehearsal time for information to be processed into LTM. Since the entry of information into LTM is slow, information backs up in STM, where it decays and is lost after 3 to 20 seconds.