Science museums (SMs) are important places for informal science learning, with visitors’ self-directed social interactions affecting their learning outcomes. Analyzing group conversations with varying compositions in SMs can reveal visitor interactions characteristics, knowledge construction process, and emotional experiences during their visits. This is significant for exploring how group interactions affect their learning outcomes; however, most research focuses on family interactions, with less attention given to college student groups. This study recorded and analyzed the conversations of 24 groups of college student peers in SMs to capture their social interaction characteristics and explore the relationship between interaction types and learning outcomes. Results showed that (1) conversations between college student peers in SMs were mostly perceptual talks (i.e., talks focused on directing attention); (2) different exhibit designs excelled at stimulating various interaction types: interactive exhibits mainly stimulated affective (i.e., expressions of emotions) and strategic talks (i.e., discussions on how to interact with the exhibit), whereas audiovisual and graphic exhibits tended to stimulate more connecting talks (i.e., discussions that linked knowledge and experiences); (3) the improvement of learning outcomes was closely related to connecting talks, particularly to Life connection and Knowledge connection; (4) interest development was strongly linked to strategic talks. These findings provide a basis for recommendations to effectively enhance informal learning outcomes and increase interest in informal science learning for college students visiting SMs.

科学博物馆 (SM) 是非正式科学学习的重要场所，参观者的自主社交互动会影响他们的学习成果。分析 SM 中不同组成的群组对话可以揭示访客在访问期间的交互特征、知识构建过程和情感体验。这对于探索小组互动如何影响他们的学习成果具有重要意义；然而，大多数研究都集中在家庭互动上，而对大学生群体的关注较少。本研究记录并分析了SMs中24组大学生同伴的对话，以捕捉他们的社交互动特征，并探讨互动类型与学习成果之间的关系。结果表明：（1）SM中大学生同伴之间的对话多为感性对话（即注重引导注意力的对话）； （2）不同的展品设计擅长激发不同的互动类型：互动展品主要激发情感（即情感的表达）和策略对话（即如何与展品互动的讨论），而视听和图形展品则倾向于激发更多的互动。连接性会谈（即将知识和经验联系起来的讨论）； (3)学习成果的提高与连接谈话密切相关，特别是与生活连接和知识连接密切相关； （四）利益发展与战略会谈密切相关。这些发现为有效提高非正式学习成果和提高访问 SM 的大学生对非正式科学学习的兴趣的建议提供了基础。