1. Psych 231: Research Methods in Psychology
Making presentations
Psych 231: Research Methods in Psychology

2. Don’t forget: Class experiment papers are due in class this Wednesday of this week
No formal lab meetings this week. Use the time to meet and work on your group project posters
Announcements

3. Presenting your research
Posters
Talks
Papers
Presentations

4. Why do presentations? To present your work/theory/research
Get feedback
It is an opportunity for peers to ask you questions about your work
For you to ask them questions
You want your audience to walk away remembering a few key points
So your goal is to be as clear as possible
Why do presentations?

5. Rough sketch of a presentation
Broad
Hourglass
shape
Introduction of the issue
Background information
Specific hypotheses
Design
Results
Interpret the results
General Conclusions
Specifics of your study
Broad
Rough sketch of a presentation

6. Preparation Consider your audience
- who are they, what do they want, what do they already know
Start collecting the things that you think that you’ll need
- graphs, tables, pictures, examples, data analyses, etc.
Determine the key points that you want them to remember
focus your presentation on these points
Camping trip analogy
Your initial pack usually has too much stuff
Need to figure out what to take out
Practice, rehearse, and then practice again
Camping trip analogy:
The process of developing a talk to that of preparing for a backpacking expedition. Plan ahead, review your goals, and plan for emergencies. At some point after you are fully prepared, open the backpack and remove between 1/3 to 1/2 of its contents. Then shoulder the pack and head for the hills - there will be more spring in your step, and it will be easier to recover if you stumble.
Preparation

7. Poster content Stick to the hourglass shape for content
Balance of text and figures
Use bullet points
Give example stimuli
Use large enough font to read from 6 feet away
End with 3 or 4 key “take home” points
Decide what these are at the beginning, and then construct the poster so that they are the logical take home points
Poster content

8. Brief checklist for the poster
Initial sketch/outline
Rough layout
Balance (text/pictures, data/conclusions)
Typography
Movement
Simplicity
Final layout
Brief checklist for the poster

9. Authors and affiliation
Title
Authors and affiliation
FLOW
Introduction
Not a lot of detail
Just the main points
Hypotheses &
predictions
Results
Graphs/tables
Bullet points of
main results
Conclusions
3 or 4 take home
points
Potential limitations
Methods
Not a lot of detail
just the main points
Participants
Design
IVs & DVs
Examples of stimuli
References
If you cite something
give the full reference

10. Authors and affiliation
Title
Authors and affiliation
Methods
Results
Introduction
FLOW
Conclusions
References

11. The pen is mightier than the brush: Using mnemonics
Leon DaVinci and Bill Shakespear
Illinois State University
Introduction
Conclusions
Remembering things is often a
challenge in everyday life.
“What was I supposed to
get at the grocery store?”
(Cutting, 2000)
We examined two factors
We predicted:
mnemonic devices will help
memory for both pictures and words
effect larger for words than pictures
Results
Stimulus type matters:
participants remembered words
better than pictures
Use of mnemonic devices helps
memory performance
Potential limitations
mnemonics No
Percent recall
pictures
words
stimulus type: pictures/words
use of mnemonics
Methods
900 native English speakers
2 x 2 between groups design
Measured the percent correctly recalled
items from a free recall procedure
24 pictures and words
main effect of stimulus type
main effect of mnemonic
no interaction
References
words
pictures
books
Cutting J. C. (2000). Finding things in your house.
Journal of Memory and Stuff, 17, pg
frog

12. Presentation of the poster
Arrive early and set up
Author(s) stand next to poster
Have a short “walk through” presentation ready
Answer questions (also ask questions)
Handout copies of the poster available (sometimes), or a request sign-up
Presentation of the poster

13. Your posters (our checklist)
Content
Introduction
Problem of interest
Very brief summary of past research
Basic purpose of experiment(s)
Hypotheses
Method
Brief but clear
Design
Materials
Procedure (brief)
Your posters (our checklist)

14. Your posters (our checklist)
Content cont.
Results
Descriptive statistics
Inferential results
Discussion
Hypothesis rejected or supported
Implication of results
A few take home points
References
Tables and figures
Useful info to reader
Easy to understand
Your posters (our checklist)

15. Your posters (our checklist)
Format
Overall clarity
Organization
Font size
Figure/text balance
Title
Authors
Your posters (our checklist)

16. Different kinds of talks
Research Presentations
(typically 10 to 30 mins)
Paper with respondent
Panel Presentation
Workshop
Following are descriptions of the types of conference presentations you may do as a graduate student. Presentation types differ among disciplines. For example, those in the humanities typically read their papers aloud at conferences, while social scientists give summary presentations of longer works.
Conference research presentation. Read/given by a single speaker. Typically scheduled for anywhere between 12 mins and 30 mins (depends on the conference). Usually 2 to 5 mins are reserved at the end of each talk for questions from the audience.
Paper with Respondent. In this type of presentation, a speaker gives a thirty-minute paper. A respondent then gives a fifteen-minute response to the paper. The speaker subsequently gives a fifteen-minute reply to the response.
Panel Presentation. Panel sessions include 3-4 speakers, each of whom talks for minutes. Panels may also have a discussant who comments on the papers/presentations individually and as a group.
Roundtable. A roundtable features five or more speakers, each of whom talks for 5-10 minutes.
Workshop. These sessions can vary in length from 90 minutes to one full day. Workshop presenters give short statements before involving the audience in some type of activity.
Different kinds of talks

17. Talk Content Create a logical progression to the talk
Hourglass shape
Work on the transitions between slides
Be brief, but include enough details so that the audience can follow the arguments
Use slides to help simplify/clarify points
Include tables, graphs, pictures, etc.
Don’t just read the slides
but do “walk through” those that need it (e.g. graphs of results)
Be careful of jargon, explain terms (if in fact you really need them)
Talk Content

18. Presentation of the talk
Make it smooth (lots of practice will help)
Watch your speaking rate (again, practice)
Maintain eye contact with whole audience
Emphasize the key points, make sure that the audience can identify these
Point to the slides if it helps
Beware jokes, can be a double-edged sword
Don’t go over your time
Presentation of the talk

19. Dealing with questions
Repeat the question in your own words
so that the rest of the audience can hear it
to make sure that you understood the question
to buy yourself some time to think about the answer
Try not to be nervous
you know your study better than anyone else
When preparing, try to think of likely questions and prepare answers
Dealing with questions

20. Checklist for the talk Preparation Prepare the Final Outline
Analyze the audience
Choose your main points
etc.
Prepare the Final Outline
fix any problems/loose ends
Construct your “speaking” outline
e.g., the note cards that you’ll read
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
Checklist for the talk

21. Next time Finishing up statistics T-tests & ANOVA What they test
How to report these results
Next time