Very interesting research coming out of Australia on the topic of "Cognitive Load." For educators and presenters, the message is clear - if you are attempting to reinforce the words you speak with visuals, those visuals need to NOT be ... the words you speak.
Cognitive Load Theory essentially states that I can listen to what you are saying or I can read the words on the screen, but due to the fundamental architecture of my brain - I can't do both.
I have long been a believer in minimal verbiage up on screen and, if I am using a lengthy quote or extract, I tend to stay silent for a moment while my audience reads and digests whatever is up there. I regard large chunks of text up on the screen as nothing short of lazy and insulting to the audience's intelligence. Tom Peters, with his entirely text-based slide decks is one of the few exceptions to this rule I can think of. But if you watch footage of Tom, or if you are lucky enough to see him in action, you can see that he spends very little time reiterating what is on the slide and a whole lot of time reacting to it or expounding upon it.
When I am presenting on presentation skills, this is a little building message that I use to hammer this point home.
So you have to deliver a lumpy piece of text. Here's 99 words on the subject of cognitive change:
"If there is something in your life that needs to evolve, something that just isn't quite right ... the first step is the easy one - you have a small 'Aha!' moment. Your intelligence tells you what the problem is and, with a modicum of thought, it will probably point you towards the solution too. The difficulty for most people arises when you try to effect the change necessary to remedy the thing that isn't quite right. And that's where the stumbling block manifests itself - there is quite a gulf between your intellectual intelligence and your emotional intelligence."
When I get the participants to represent this in slide form, I usually get back something that looks like this:
33 words on the screen to reinforce the 99 spoken words. Conventional thinking would say that this is not too shabby, particularly if the presenter uses the 'Build' function as they present the bullets so that the audience doesn't read ahead. One group came back to me with this slide:
Much stronger. Just 7 words on screen appearing in the midst of the presenter's flow. Strong colour to reinforce the difference between the two forms of intelligence. I like to present that lumpy piece of text with a blank screen for the preamble and then reinforce it with this slide:
And doubt about which of the two intelligences is more important in the process of effecting a behavioural change in your life?Have a look at the ideas that Prof. Sweller and his team are espousing. Their findings are startling, to say the least.
4 comments:
Fantastic. I love the IQ and EQ slides...I am about to give a presentation using powerpoint and you have just changed my whole plan. Thank you so much!
Liz
Glad you like it Liz. This simple image has provoked strong reaction from many audiences I have talked to. Hope something along these lines works for you.
Rowan,
Thanks for the post! This study definitely makes a lot of sense and should be taken to heart by any serious presenter. Death by Powerpoint is simply too common.
Here are a few other small points about power-point I'd like to mention.
1: Close Outlook when you are showing PowerPoint slides. Otherwise, email alerts pop up.
2: Always use the slideshow mode: it makes your slides easier to see.
3: Avoid standing in the projector beam, as it is distracting.
4: Think of the bullets on your slides as hooks. By that I mean that the bullet should remind you of your talking points but also incite curiosity in your audience. Use questions, alliteration (repetition of consonants) or juxtaposition of ideas to intrigue the audience.
The EQ versus IQ slides here are a perfect example of this.
5: Use more images
Incorporate images and negative visual space. Break up all the linear text on your slides with stories, examples, images & metaphors. Otherwise, you are not engaging your audience’s right hemisphere, the brain’s center of imagination. That’s when our minds start to drift, in spite of the fact that the data may be important for us to learn and understand.
6: Simplify text
Most PowerPoint slides are loaded with way too much text. Distill your slides down into simple bullet points with 4 or 6 words per bullet max. Instead, think of the bullets as hooks.
Thanks for bringing this study to my attention.
Terry - thanks for your excellent input. It's worthy of a post in itself! I wholeheartedly agree with everything you are saying with the possible exception of point 6 - I think the challenge for us all as presenters is to take a text-based slide and obliterate ALL the text. Have you seen Cliff Atkinson's thoughts on re-presenting a 7 bullet point slide as 7 separate strong slides?
There's just too much data out there now demonstrating the ineffectiveness of using words up on screen. Recall and comprehension both suffer as a result of this method. The alternative is hard - but only for the presenter, not the audience.
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