Personal Meaning Mapping

Background
Personal Meaning Mapping (PMM) is a powerful tool for exploring people’s
knowledge and awareness of topics. Unlike a survey it does not require people to
provide answers in a linear sequence nor restricts their answers to sentences or
the choice of pre-set options. Visitors are free to use words, phrases or even
pictures. They can provide responses in any order and can illustrate links
between concepts and secondary associations with words they have written.
Another advantage of Personal Meaning Mapping is that it does not involve the
use of potentially leading questions or prompts. Visitors are simply asked to
describe what they associate with a target word or phrase. Personal Meaning
Mapping is ideal for capturing the highly personal and individual responses. It
can provide both qualitative and quantitative data and can be used to assess
changes over time.

Personal Meaning Mapping however requires more time than other evaluation
methods, both explaining to visitors what they need to do and for them to
complete their maps. It is therefore recommended that evaluators collect around
30 personal meaning maps per concept.

Using Personal Meaning Mapping

The best approach is to start by showing visitors an example PMM that you have
produced on a completely unrelated target concept. This PMM should include 2
or 3 levels of association (i.e. things associated with the concepts generated by
the initial target concept) as well as linkages between the concepts generated.
This will provide visitors with a clear and concise model to follow.

To start a Personal Meaning Map visitors are presented with a single word or
short phrase at the centre of the page. Visitors are asked to add words, phrases
or pictures that they associate with the target word or phrase. They can also be
asked to illustrate linkages they perceive to exist between these concepts and to
add further orders of concepts – i.e. concepts they perceive to be linked to the
concepts generated by the initial target word/phrase

When finished, visitors should be asked to explain their Personal Meaning Maps
and why they made these particular choices and associations. The interviewer
can add further annotation to the map at this stage to provide greater clarity.

The Personal Meaning Map can be used as a pre and/or post-visit research tool.
One interesting approach is to get visitors to review and update their initial
Personal Meaning Map after the visit to provide insight into how the visit has
changed their thinking.

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A suggested sequence of instructions for PMM is shown below

Hello my name is … and I work for the … . We are doing some research to help us plan a
new … . Would you be interested in spending x minutes answering some questions? {If
agree guide them to the seating area}. What we are trying to do is to gather data about
what our visitors associate with the term … {read aloud and show target word/phrase}.
What we would like you to do is to add to this any ideas, thoughts, questions or words
that come to mind when you see this phrase. You can add any words, phrases or even
pictures if you prefer. There are no right or wrong answers we are just interested in
seeing what you associate with this term and to show any links you can think of between
the ideas that you include. As an example here is one I completed earlier about an
entirely different concept. This doesn’t have anything to do with the gallery we are
developing; it’s just an example of the kind of thing we are looking for. {Interviewer: show
example PMM point out target word; linked concepts; examples of second and third order
concepts included & links between concepts}. OK before you start do you have any
questions about what you need to do?

The example PMM needs to be of something entirely and clearly unrelated to the
theme of the gallery or even to the museum e.g. cricket. It should show level 1
and level 2 associations plus cross links.

Once the interviewee has completed their PMM the interviewer should ask them
about what they have added.

Just to ensure I understand could you quickly explain to me the words (and images) you
have added? {Prompt them about any words, phrases, pictures they don’t spontaneously
explain}

PMM can be used with adults and children. It can be done as a school or family
exercise involving all of the members of a group working individually or in pairs
(although it is best for adults and children to generate separate maps). You will
need to provide seating and a table where visitors can comfortably work. One
option is to recruit people who are already sitting in the café.

Remember to ask about the type of group, first language, country of origin and
age category of the interviewees.

Analysing Personal Meaning Maps

The data generated by Personal Meaning Maps is extremely rich. It may not be
necessary or practical to always analysis the data in great detail but below are
some strategies for carrying out this analysis.

Quantity of relevant concepts

This can be as basic as counting the number of items linked to the target
word/phrase. This can provide insight into the extent of visitors’ knowledge and
awareness.

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Range of concepts
Items added to the Personal Meaning Map are grouped into categories of
concept. The number of relevant concepts in each category and the number of
categories is counted.

Depth of understanding
The detail and complexity of concepts added to the Personal Meaning Map are
analysed. This might include the number of words used to describe concepts or
the level of the vocabulary.

Degree of emotion in responses

To what extent are people using emotive terms or images in their Personal
Meaning Maps? Are these positive or negative? Are there changes after the
experience of visiting the gallery?

Structure of the Personal Meaning Map

Analysis of number of items linked to the target word/phrase (level 1 concepts)
vs. the number of items linked to level 1 concepts (level 2 concepts) and so on.
This can give an impression of the depth of visitors’ understanding and the
degree of organisation in their thinking (see example below).

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Example Personal Meaning Maps
Two examples of PMM’s are shown below taken from a real research project.

A teacher’s map of the “civil rights movement” prior to visiting the Civil Rights
Institute, Birmingham, Alabama

businesses
churches schools

segregation
st
1 bombing of B’ham
Rosa Parks

Civil rights
Gov. Wallace movement
Montgomery Boycott

University of
Alabama Marches from Selma Montgomery

Martin Luther King Jr.

Taken from “Burning buses, burning crosses” by Leinhardt G & Gregg M (2002)

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A teacher’s map of the “civil rights movement” after visiting the Civil Rights
Institute, Birmingham, Alabama

University of
Selma to Montgomery Freedom riders Alabama

Voting rights

Kids’ march Jim Crow

laws schools
Churches
Montgomery
Bus boycott Marches & rallies Segregation
Businesses

Civil rights
movement Lyndon B Johnson
Kids’ March
George Wallace
Violence
People of the time

Freedom riders Rosa Parks

16th street bombing
Martin Luther King Jr

Rev Fishburn

Taken from “Burning buses, burning crosses” by Leinhardt G & Gregg M (2002)

Comparing the pre and post visit PMM it can be seen that the teacher’s
knowledge of the civil rights movement is both broader and more detailed after
the visit. It can also be seen that their understanding of the subject is more
organised with the topics now grouped under category headings “violence”,
“people of the time”, “marches and rallies” and “segregation”. There are also
more level 2 and 3 concepts and fewer level 1 concepts indicating greater depth
of understanding.

Further reading
 The effect of visitors’ agendas on museum learning: Falk JH, Moussouri T
& Coulson D (1998) Curator 41(2) pp107-119. An example of the use of
Personal Meaning Mapping in the summative evaluation of a museum
gallery.
 Burning buses, burning crosses: Student teachers see civil rights:
Leinhardt G & Gregg M (2002) in Learning conversations in museums
(eds. Leinhardt G, Crowley K & Knutson K). Example of how concepts
maps can be used to assess the impact of a museum visit. Includes a
detailed analysis of the structure of Personal Meaning Maps.
 Things change – museums, learning and research: Adams M, Falk JH &
Dierking LD (2003) in Researching visual arts education in museums and

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galleries (eds. Xanthoudaki M, Tickle L & Sekuls V). An overview of the
theory and practice of using Personal Meaning Maps with a number of
case studies.