The effects of salience and ordinal position of exhibit objects on visitor attention in digital exhibitions

Abstract

The aims of the present experiments were to investigate the impact of (a) ordinal position, (b) object salience (size and three-dimensionality), and (c) proximity to salient objects on visitor attention in digital exhibitions, and to make comparisons with trends observed in physical exhibitions. The results of two experiments involving 210 participants, conducted using a tablet computer, indicated that (a) the ordinal position and salience effects observed in physical exhibitions were also present in the digital medium; (b) however, the overshadowing effect by the salient objects on the adjacent ones observed in physical exhibitions did not seem to emerge when three-dimensionality was the salience parameter; and (c) the negative impact of the salient object’s presence on the overall attention to the exhibition observed in physical exhibitions seemed to be eliminated in digital exhibition environments regardless of the salience parameter