Presenting Research

Learning objectives Structuring a psychology research talk Giving effective presentations

Structuring a psychology research talk Hour glass metaphor : start broad, go specific, end broad Introductory example should be something the audience can relate to and understand (be creative!) e.g., a quote, a recent news story, a previous familiar study or line of research, a rhetorical question Have intro memorized (or at least first few sentences)

Structuring a psychology research talk Introduce your research question clearly Move into a brief lit review no need to provide details for all the studies but weave them together into a story that leads to your research question Include citations on the slides

Structuring a psychology research talk Method: Include participants and procedure Results: Show relevant results in graphs for ease of interpretation - Walk the audience through the graph by orienting them to the axes and bars Discussion: Summarize results and add why they are important Future studies/directions Conclusion: e.g., Implications, importance, a quote

Giving effective presentations Think about the audience Giving a talk to Microsoft employees is very different from giving one to professors Anticipate what questions might be asked

Giving effective presentations Develop an instinct for where you are going at the beginning and repeat it at the end – along with why it is important Audience attention curve

Presentation Details

Using your slides effectively Font Use a sans-serif font for readability: This font is Arial This font is Comic Sans Serif fonts are harder to read: This font is Times New Roman This font is Courier

Using your slides effectively Font size should be greater than 18 point 18 point 20 point 24 point 28 point 36 point One exception is references, which can be smaller (14 point)

USING YOUR SLIDES EFFECTIVELY ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS NOT RECOMMENDED BECAUSE IT MAKES THE SLIDES MUCH HARDER TO READ (AND IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE YELLING AT THE AUDIENCE) Some find that underlined text is also hard to read Bold text works well

Raise your hand if you can read this. USING YOUR SLIDES EFFECTIVELY Try not to put text in the lower 1/3 of the slide Some audience members may not be able to see it Raise your hand if you can read this.

Using your slides effectively Colors One good option: Dark text against a light background Especially good for small rooms

Using your slides effectively Colors Another good option: Light text against a dark background Dark blue backgrounds are popular and good choices

Using your slides effectively Colors One good option: Dark text against a light background There are some bad color combinations. Especially if someone in your audience is color-blind.

Using your slides effectively Colors One good option: Dark text against a light background Another bad one

Using your slides effectively Text Keep sections of text to one to two lines.

Using your slides effectively Text It’s not good to put too much text on the screen because it can make it distracting to the audience when they are trying to listen to you and read the text at the same time. Every time your audience gets distracted, it takes away from your presentation.

Using your slides effectively Bullets Some people recommend not using bullets at all If you do use them, limit yourself to three points • Item 1 • Item 2 • Item 3 Sublists can get messy

Using your slides effectively Timing Slides take more time than you realize! Plan on less than one slide per minute

Using your slides effectively Animation Animate your points so that they come up as you talk about them This will keep the audience engaged, slow you down, and keep the slides neat

Using your slides effectively Empty space is a good thing in presentations

Just talking (with no slides for a moment) can be a good thing too. It gets people’s attention and they focus entirely on you. The focus of any presentation should be you, not the slides. More on that later.

You are more interesting than your slides Presenting yourself You are more interesting than your slides Face the audience and let them see you (don’t hide behind a podium) Make eye contact Present (not read)

You are more interesting than your slides Presenting yourself You are more interesting than your slides Don’t stop too often to drink Act comfortable standing up – don’t move wildly or stand rigidly Keep hair and hands out of your face

Giving effective presentations Time yourself Skipping slides looks unprofessional unless you were interrupted frequently

Know what you are going to say Giving effective presentations Know what you are going to say Have the opening and closing down cold At the closing, signal you are done by pausing and then smiling and thanking the audience

Giving effective presentations Practice Give your talk to family and friends Practice in front of a mirror Video tape yourself

Conference Talks Typical conference talks are 10-15 minutes with about 5 minutes for Q&A Usually symposium format with 3-4 speakers, sometimes with a discussant Biggest conference: Society of Personality and Social Psychology

Congratulations You have learned how to… Structure a psychology research talk Give an effective presentation