http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/58309657

Problems of installation in museums of art

"Since the museum of art is in many respects the most homogeneous from a psychological point of view, our early studies were confined to that institution. For similar reasons Dr. Melton has chosen the art museum as the subject of the present monograph. The report of our findings during the past seven years involves a number of tasks. In the first place we have found it necessary to reexamine those rationalistic and speculative theories which have hitherto dominated museum practice. In the second place we have had to examine the logical assumptions underlying our own objective methods of inquiry. These theoretical and methodological questions, treated by Dr. Melton in the first two chapters of the present monograph, may seem unduly abstruse to the practical man who is impatient for results. Constant contact with practical museologists over the past ten years has shown, however, that the most immediately useful of our findings are likely to be misinterpreted unless the theory and methods of our studies are understood. In the final chapter of his monograph, Dr. Melton has gathered together and simplified the theory, the methods, and the factual results of his studies; and the reader who has had no previous acquaintance with our work may find it helpful to read that final chapter first. But again let it be said that a critical understanding of our program of investigation will require a mastery of the scientific logic and experimental method underlying that program"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

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