The Science Of Presentations

The Science of Presentations

©2008 Kevin Gee Consulting, LLC

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Hi, I’m Kevin Gee. This talk is about what science can tell us about giving effective presentations.

Aristotle

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Around 350 BC, Aristotle wrote his treatise on Physics.

Heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects

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In it, he said that in a freefall, heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones. People thought very highly of Aristotle, a this is an intuitive, common-sense idea.

Heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects

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But is this true?

GalileoGalilei

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This belief persisted in Western civilization for nearly years, until this man: Galileo Galilei arrived on the scene.

Scientific Method

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He applied mathematics and the scientific method to the problem of gravity. There is a legend that he dropped two different masses from the Tower of Pisa and observed that they landed at the same time.

Both objects fall at the same rate

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Why hadn’t anyone done this earlier? Well, Aristotle had enormous influence over Western thought, the idea was intuitive, and the scientific method was not a widely accepted mode of inquiry so the incorrect idea persisted…

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Today we face a similar situation with business presentations. Since its introduction in 1987, PowerPoint and other software has become the standard for presenting information to groups of people. Millions of presentations are given every year using these tools.

Cognitive Theory of Learning

• Limited Capacity– 7 Elements +/‐ 2 held in working memory

• Two Modes– Visual– Auditory

• Active Learning– Text, images, spoken words, recalled information held in working memory

– Contents of working memory assembled into mental model

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Many of us are subjected to slides like this on a daily basis. This format of topic headings and bulleted lists has evolved over the years, mostly through social convention and intuition. But is this the most effective method of communicating with an audience?

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

• Blah Blah Blah– Blah blah blah blah blah blah

• Blah Blah Blah– Blah

– Blah

• Blah Blah– Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

– Blah blah blah blah blah blah

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In reality, your audience probably sees a conventional slide this way. Like Aristotle’s Physics, the conventional approach to presenting is appealing and intuitive. However, if you evaluate it against the current findings of cognitive science and educational psychology, you find that this is not very well suited to how people actually learn.

Present According to How People

Learn

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So the key question is: Can we present to people according to how they actually learn?

Cognitive Theory

Factors for Effectiveness

Application

MentalModel

Working Memory

Familiar Unfamiliar

Advance Organizer

Limited Capacity

Two ModesActive Learning


Learn

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To answer this question, we’ll start by looking at the current cognitive theories of learning. Then we’ll get into some specific effects that can help or hinder learning. Finally, we’ll apply these principles as we overhaul a conventional slide.

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Richard E Mayer from UC Santa Barbara outlines three different elements of his cognitive theory of learning.

Limited Capacity

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The first part of the theory is that humans have limited cognitive capacity. There is a limit to how much information can be received, processed, and stored effectively. If you assault your audience with too much information and require them to do too much work to understand your ideas, your presentations will not be effective.

WorkingMemory

7

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Working memory is the mind’s temporary storage. We can only hold about 7 information elements at one time in working memory. These are not 7 sentences or bullet points, but individual information elements such as words, numbers, characters, sounds, or tastes. This suggests that the standard slide with multiple bullet points each with multiple words contains way too much information for someone to hold in working memory. Kahneman’s (1973) capacity theory Cognitive Load Theory Dual Coding Theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-coding_theory Visual and verbal information is processed differently by the brain. Visual memory represents sensory inputs while verbal memory is symbolic. Working Memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory n study after study, humans only seem to be able to deal with 7 pieces of data at once, plus or minus two, regardless of the type of information.

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The second part of the cognitive theory of learning is that we have two modes for taking in information. These are the visual and auditory modes. They are each independent, and they each have their own maximum capacity for sensing, processing, and storage. You can think of these two distinct types of working memory as a sketch pad and a tape loop. The sketch pad represents visual working memory while the tape loop represents auditory working memory. The brain will replay the contents of the sketch pad and tape loop while it works on their meaning. You should be aware of the limited capacity of working memory as you build presentations. Baddely and Hitch Model of Working Memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory Visuo-spatial sketch pad

Active Learning

Mental Model

Text

Images Spoken Words

Memories

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The third part of Mayer’s cognitive theory of learning is that the process of learning is ACTIVE. The mind assembles different pieces of information into a mental model. The data can take the form of text, images, spoken words, or information retrieved from long term memory. A mental model is really a set of relationships that ties the new data together and relates it back to knowledge that has been acquired earlier. This process of constructing a mental model moves the information out of working memory to more permanent types of storage.

MentalModel

Working Memory

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You should be very aware of what mental models you are constructing in the minds of your audience. Through speaking and proper slide design you should make it easy for the audience to identify what pieces of data need to be held in working memory. Also, you shouldn’t attempt to construct more than one mental model simultaneously, doing so forces the audience to swap data in and out of working memory, and makes it more difficult to process and store the ideas you are presenting. Mental Model: Universal Principles of Design, p. 130 Chunking: Universal Principles of Design, p. 30 Baddely and Hitch Model of Working Memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory Visuo-spatial sketch pad Phonological loop Theory of Cowan Adds elements recalled from Long Term Memory to Working Memory

Images

Text

Narration

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Most presentations involve some combination of images, text, and narration. The question is, what is the optimal combination of these elements?

Visual

AuditoryNarration

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Let’s start with the oldest and purest form of communication: narration without any supporting visuals. Narration activates the auditory processing mode quite well. However, we have excess cognitive capacity left over in the audience because their visual processing mode is not being activated.

Visual

Text

Narration Auditory

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Let’s move onto the most common format for presentations, narration accompanied by extensive onscreen text. The conventional wisdom is that the visuals support the information, making the overall presentation more effective. Its true that the written text is first processed visually. However, as the audience reads the onscreen text to themselves, they are using their auditory processing capacity to search for keywords to store on the tape loop.

If you’re reading this…You aren’t listening.

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Always be aware that any time you place text on the screen, the audience will devote cognitive capacity to silently reading the text rather than focusing on the speaker’s words. This suggests that the conventional presentation with narration and onscreen text is counterproductive because it requires extra auditory processing without adding meaning beyond what is being spoken aloud.

VisualImages

Text

Narration Auditory

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Many presentations attempt to convey even more information to the audience using images, and onscreen text along with narration. Of all the alternatives shown so far, this places the highest cognitive load on the audience. The visual processing centers are overloaded with images and text, while the auditory centers are conflicted between reading text and listening to the speaker. The high cognitive load makes it very difficult for the audience to identify the few key pieces of data that deserve to be held in working memory while mental models are constructed.

VisualImages

Text

Narration Auditory

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The most effective way to convey information during a presentation is to use images with very little on-screen text. This way, we fill the auditory and visual channels. Again remember that the images should not be overly complex, otherwise we are in danger of exceeding the cognitive capacity of our audience. Picture Superiority Effect: Universal Principles of Design, p. 152.

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Now that we have a cognitive theory of learning, let’s look at some specific effects that can help or hinder learning during a presentation.

Confusing wordsand images

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The first is called the coherence principle. This is the effect where adding additional words and images to a slide *decreases* retention rather than increases it. This is why logos, clip art, text, and images relating to other topics should be removed from slides.

“Any car which holds together for a whole race is too heavy.”‐‐Colin Chapman

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Colin Chapman, creator of the legendary Lotus 7 race car said: “Any car which holds together for a whole race is too heavy.” Use the Coherence Principle in your presentations by removing extraneous information from your slides.

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Remember that people can only hold about 7 pieces of data in working memory at once. What happens if we absolutely must show people large amounts of information?

Chunking

1234 567 89

0

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One useful technique is called “Chunking”. Chunking is used to organize data into groups. Chunking the information reduces the burden on working memory. You can chunk data by grouping it spatially, using color, or ordering the data to show common relationships.

Familiar Unfamiliar

Advance Organizer

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Another technique to aid understanding is to use something called an advance organizer. An advance organizer presents new ideas in the context of familiar ideas. Here’s an example: Universal Principles of Design, p. 16

Horseless Carriage

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100 years ago, the automobile was a new concept. Instead of trying to explain automobiles from first principles, they showed it as a variant of a common mode of transportation. By calling it a “horseless carriage”, people knew that it was a device that served the same purpose as a carriage, but did not require a horse to propel it.

Expositionvs

Narrative

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The way that we organize information also has an impact on learning. Two common ways to organize information in a presentation are by using exposition or narratives.

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Exposition is the most typical approach today. It involves simply making statements in a systematic way. “Episodic memory theory posits that there are five major memory systems that the average human uses on a daily basis: episodic, semantic, procedural, perceptual representation, and STM (Tulving, 1991).” Semantic memory is for trivia and facts.

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Narratives are an interesting alternative to the expository style. Instead of simply presenting a list of statements, narration ties the statements into a story. Narratives reinforce the causal relationship between the key points of the talk and add emotional content to what might be an otherwise dry presentation. In some studies, narrative forms of presentation showed higher rates of retention than the traditional expository forms.

Processing Memory

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The more you process information, the more likely you are to remember it. Universal Principles of Design, pg. 60 “Levels of Processing: A Framework for Memory Research” by Fergus I.M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1972, vol.11, p. 671-684. “Analysis proceeds through a series of sensory stages to levels associated with matching or pattern recognition and finally to semantic-associative stages of stimulus enrichment.” –from above paper.

Processing Memory

sense

repeat

synthesize

apply

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Depth of processing increases as we simply take in the information, to repeating it to ourselves. It takes more work to synthesize what we know with other pieces of information. Finally, the most processing is required to apply information in new ways. The standard presentation model of “say what you are going to say, say it, then tell them what you said” does not require much processing on the part of the audience. It is better to connect concepts together and apply them in order to get your audience to remember what you have said. Universal Principles of Design, pg. 60 “Levels of Processing: A Framework for Memory Research” by Fergus I.M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1972, vol.11, p. 671-684. “Analysis proceeds through a series of sensory stages to levels associated with matching or pattern recognition and finally to semantic-associative stages of stimulus enrichment.” –from above paper.

APPLICATION

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Let’s apply some of the ideas we’ve learned, starting from a conventional slide.






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Here is a typical slide to start with. It has a lot of text and graphics, and this single slide contains many different concepts together. The first thing we’re going to do is remove the extraneous graphics from the slide. These graphics serve our own ego, but don’t help the audience to learn our message. Slides = Speaker Notes What speaker wants to say, not what audience wants to hear Easy to produce Too much information Audience does not absorb key points






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Next we’re going to change the title of the slide. Typically, slide titles show the topic of the contents of the rest of the slide. The problem here is that the main point the speaker is trying to convey is either buried in a bullet point or must be synthesized from all of the information from the slide. This is too much work to do while the audience is listening to the speaker. Instead, let’s change the title from a category to a conclusion. This will reinforce our message to the audience without causing cognitive overload. Here the topic of “A Cognitive Theory of Learning” becomes…

Present According to How People Learn





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The conclusion “Present According to How People Learn”. By reading the title, the audience knows the point we are trying to make. The contents of the slide become supporting evidence for the key point. The next problem with this slide is that we have too many concepts going on at once. We should give presentations with the awareness that we are building mental models in the minds of the audience. The screen should contain at most the 7 key pieces of data the audience needs to construct a single mental model. I count four main concepts outlined on this slide. The idea that we should present according to how people learn, and the 3 elements of the cognitive theory of learning: limited capacity, the two cognitive modes, and the process of active learning.

Limited Capacity

Two ModesActive Learning


Learn

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Here are those 4 concepts again. We are now going to restrict ourselves to one mental model per slide. We’re going to use the slide visuals to tell the audience what key pieces of data they should hold in working memory in order to construct the mental model for each concept. Many people get hung up about the number of slides in a presentation. The length of a presentation is driven by the number of concepts that are presented and the depth of processing on each concept. It is helpful to think of a talk as a sequence of concepts or mental models rather than slides. The length of the talk can be varied by changing the number of concepts and the depth of processing for those concepts. Be honest with yourself about how many concepts you can convey in a certain amount of time. Many people artificially limit the number of slides in their presentation by packing as much information into each slide as possible. This is counterproductive. It’s better to concentrate on getting your audience to understand a few key ideas rather than give them cognitive overload and have them come away with nothing.


Learn

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Here is the new slide for our first concept. Notice there are only a few words on the screen. As the audience reads the text to themselves, they repeat the key concept and can focus on the speaker. The explanation for the concept is spoken by the speaker. Any other text on the screen diverts cognitive capacity away from the speaker and is counterproductive.

Limited Capacity

7

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Our next slide helps the audience to construct a mental model around limited cognitive capacity. The number seven and the words limited capacity are the pieces of data we want the audience to hold in working memory. The image of the dolls fading into the background is handled by the visual centers and are an clear representation of our mental model for limited capacity.

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This slide is designed to build a mental model for the two modes of learning, the visual sketch pad, and the auditory tape loop. Notice there is not even any text on the slide. All of the verbal information comes through the auditory channel as live narration from the speaker. The most effective presentations are often meaningless as standalone documents. If someone wanted to learn about this topic without attending the live talk they would either need to view a multimedia version of the presentation that includes a voice-over narration, or another document would need to be created that includes written speaker notes to accompany the visuals. When I’m giving a talk, I like to prepare written speaker notes and offer them as a handout at the conclusion of the talk.

Active Learning

Mental Model

Text

Images Spoken Words

Memories

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This slide is used to illustrate the mental model for active learning. The slide contains 6 information elements as combined text and graphics to illustrate the concept. It is easy for the audience to hold all of these elements in working memory. The image acts as a guide on how to construct the mental model.

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To summarize: Present according to how people learn. Using the cognitive theory of learning to be a more effective presenter. Be aware of the limited cognitive capacity of the audience. Have an awareness of the visual and auditory working memory. Use visuals and narration to draw attention to the key information elements that should be held in working memory. Be disciplined and limit yourself to only one concept or mental model per slide! Also, use some of the other techniques we’ve talked about like advance organizers, narratives, and depth of processing to improve your message.

Multimedia LearningRichard E. Mayer

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If you would like to learn more about this topic, I recommend the following books: Multimedia learning by Richard Mayer is one of the best books on the science of learning in a multimedia environment.

Universal Principles of DesignLidwell, Holden, Butler

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Universal Principles of Design is a great book to learn about specific techniques for improving the effectiveness of your presentations. It blends the findings of scientific research with established design principles. Not all of the principles are supported by research, but it is still a great resource.

Beyond Bullet PointsCliff Atkinson

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Finally I recommend Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson. This book is also not strictly scientific, but its recommendations are consistent with Richard Mayer’s research. It presents a cookbook approach that can be used to frame your ideas in a narrative and reduce the cognitive load on the audience to improve clarity.

Thank You!For speaker notes and references:

[email protected]

©2008 Kevin Gee Consulting, LLC

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Thanks for checking out this talk. If you’d like to get in touch with me please drop me an e-mail at [email protected]. Thanks again.

The Science Of Presentations

Business

Transcript of The Science Of Presentations