Professor John Sweller: University of NSW.

Academics from Australia’s University of New South Wales have revealed that the common practice of repeating your spoken presentation with the same words as bullet points on-screen actually makes it harder to learn and retain the information for the audience. Since PowerPoint is typically used in this way, the ‘use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster’, says Professor John Sweller, an education professor at the university.

The researchers found that the human brain processes information better when presented in verbal or printed form but not when presented in both forms at the same time. Presenters who use a list of bullet points on a slide and then go through them verbally, would actually be better off if the audience ignored either the slide or the talk.

Cognitive load theory

Professor Sweller developed his so-called cognitive load theory in the 1980s. It suggests that people learn best when the strain on their working memory – a collective term for the processes that temporarily store and manipulate information – is minimised. (No wonder my brain hurts during all those presentations – Ed.) This allows the audience to move information from their working memory into long-term memory. When cognitive load (the load on working memory) is too high, learning is more difficult.

Professor Sweller adds that a visual aid such as a chart is not the same kind of load, and that this is actually the best way to use PowerPoint. ‘It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form,’ he says.

Nicholas Oulton: bullet points don't work.

This is exactly the same advice that presentations guru Nicholas Oulton from M62 offered to ModernSelling.com readers recently in his article Top Ten Tips for Creating a Perfect Sales Presentation: ‘Bullet points in a presentation simply don't work. They are counter-productive and ineffective. If you eliminated all the bullet points in your presentation it would be better.’

Decreases understanding

Professor Sweller concludes: ‘But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.’

Growing intolerance

Other experts agree that the current way that PowerPoint is used has now had its day. ‘I think we’re seeing a very clear trend,’ says Adobe Systems senior product marketing manager David Slater in the US Sales and Marketing Management magazine. ‘There’s a strong, growing intolerance for PowerPoint presentations with the old twelve-point font, the cheesy transitions, the car screech as a bullet comes across the street. You’re really viewed negatively if you use that stuff.’

More interactive

President of US-based Better Business Presentations, Bob Lipp agrees: ‘Future presentations will become more interactive.’ He claims presentations are shifting from monologues to dialogues, with a boost from Flash animation, special effects and video.

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