Lunch & Learn IHCD: Neuroscience-Informed Exploration of Visitor Engagement

Tedi Asher, PhD, is the Neuroscience Researcher at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts. She joined PEM in the spring of 2017 after completing her PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School. As the first neuroscientist on staff at an art museum, Asher helps to inform the exhibition design strategy by analyzing emerging neuroscientific findings and proposing recommendations to increase engagement and visitor impact. She has a long-standing interest in deciphering the mechanisms underlying human emotional experience, a pursuit she is actively engaged in at PEM.

This presentation will report on some of the work that Dr. Asher has undertaken since 2017, and specifically will explore the concept of visitor engagement using published neuroscientific research findings as well as emerging results of visitor studies at the Peabody Essex Museum. Among other topics, the talk will touch on the role that attention, emotion, and memory may play in formulating our understanding engagement in cultural settings.