Why do you go to the zoo? Come to think of it, why didn't you go to that exhibition you meant to catch last month? "The motivation to visit museums and galleries basically seems to come in five flavours," says Dr John Falk of the Institute for Learning Innovation.

He lists them under five headings: the explorer, the facilitator, the experience seeker, the professional hobbyist and the spiritual pilgrim.

"Ask an Explorerwhy they're going to the natural history museum," says Falk, "and they'll tell you it's because it's a great place to go to see interesting and new things. In general, it's about them. For the Facilitator, on the other hand, it's all about somebody else; so they'll tell you their kids are crazy about insects, or dinosaurs, or whatever.

"For the Experience Seeker, it's about place. If you're in Dublin, what do you do? You go to the National Gallery. I can go home, put a notch on my bedpost and say 'I've done Dublin'.

"Then there are folks who are Professional Hobbyists. I'm a diver. I don't dive very often - but before I go diving, I try and take myself to an aquarium so that I can refresh my memory about fish identification. It's a lot easier if you do it standing in front of the aquarium with a school guide, rather than underwater, complete with all the challenges of diving. So I have a very specific purpose for going there. The Spiritual Pilgrim, on the other hand, wants to get away from day-to-day existence - to decompress a little."

Casual as they may sound, it turns out that these motivations are crucial to the visitor experience - not just on the day, but months, even years later. "When you ask the facilitator, 'why did you go to the zoo a year ago?', she'll say: 'Yeah, it was a great gorilla day for Billy. He was so fascinated by those gorillas; I remember standing there watching him, and as we went home he just couldn't stop talking about them.' Her memories of that day are all through the lens of being a facilitator. Whereas the explorer - who may also have brought children along - will say: 'You know what, it was really fabulous. I was almost nose to nose with a gorilla. I really got up close and personal with those gorillas.' And if you ask, 'what about Billy?' he'll say: 'Oh, Billy had a fabulous time. But I got to really look at the gorillas.'"

Falk says that smart museums of the future will use these motivations in order to fast-track their visitors to make the most of the available facilities. "It isn't as simple as sticking a colour code on a person's forehead and saying: 'A ha! An explorer.' But I don't think it's going to be business as usual either."