1. Presenting Research

2. Learning objectives Structuring a psychology research talk
Giving effective presentations

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Presentation Details

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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.

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

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

16. 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.

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

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

19. 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.

20. 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

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

22. 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

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

24. 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.

25. 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)

26. 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

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

28. 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

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

30. Conference Talks
Typical conference talks are 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

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