LEARNING AND ATTITUDE-CHANGE AT BRITISH NUCLEAR-FUELS SELLAFIELD-VISITORS-CENTER

Knowledge of and attitude towards nuclear power were measured in a bef ore/after evaluation study of Sellafield Visitors Centre. The attitude scale was broken down into its component factors using a Principal Co mponents Analysis with orthogonal rotation. Five factors were extracte d and these were interpreted as: (a) economic and technical; (b) healt h and safety; (c) emotional; (d) environmental; (e) passive acceptance . These factors were then analysed in ANOVAs to assess changes due to the Visitor Centre by gender, age and previous education. A verbal kno wledge questionnaire was also administered before/after and analysed w ith similar ANOVAs but with the attitudinal factors included as covari ates. It was found that knowledge increased significantly across all c ategories of visitor. In attitude measures, the environmental and the economic and technical factors changed positively but although health and safety changed positively for men - it changed negatively for wome n. The emotional factor changed negatively for the younger visitors an d did not change positively for any of the demographic groupings. The knowledge questionnaire, together with a pictorial knowledge test, wer e compared with a behavioural mapping measure to explore the propertie s of displays that contribute most to learning. (C) 1995 Academic Pres s Limited