Effects of mobile AR-enabled interactions on retention and transfer for learning in art museum contexts

In this paper, we describe an experiment to study the effect of mobile Augmented Reality (AR) on learning in art museum contexts. We created six original paintings and placed them in a mini art museum. We then created an AR application on the iPad to enable the artist to visually augment each painting by introducing animation. We then measured the ability of the visitors to remember the appearance of the paintings after 24 hours, as well as their ability to objectify the paintings. Experiment results show that while AR does improve retention and transfer of such art information, the benefits of AR are mediated by other factors such as interference from other elements of the exhibition, as well as subjects' own prior art experience and training. The use of AR may also produce unexpected benefits, such as providing users with a new perspective of the artwork, as well as increasing their curiosity and encouraging them to experiment with the technology. Such benefits may potentially improve the chances for learning and analytical activities to take place.