.Ppt recal

ARE YOU
MEMORABLE?
Dr. Carmen Simon

How many slides do
people really remember?
Four experiments examined the role of the isolation effect in predicting superior recall for isolated slides in a
ABSTRACT

PowerPoint deck. Results showed that participants recalled on average 4 slides from a text-only deck, and
recalled slides were not at random; they followed a pattern. Memory improved when neutral images were
added to text-only slides.

Recall rate did not exceed the cap of 4 remembered slides regardless of deck manipulations, such as
changing background colors, alternating text-only and text and visual slides, or replacing neutral visuals
with emotional visuals. There was a correlation between isolated slides and recalled slides when slides were
changed every 5th slide.
ARE YOU MEMORABLE | 01

[ R ES E A R C H
QUESTIONS [
RQ1 How many slides will people remember
from a deck of text-only, 20 slides?

RQ2 Will the inclusion of neutral visuals
improve memory?

RQ3 Will people remember the same slides
or will memory differ from person to
person?

RQ4 Will visual distinctiveness every nth
slide improve recall?

RQ5 Is there a correlation between visually
distinct slides and recall rate?

“A wealth of information creates a
poverty of attention.“ -Herbert Simon
Nobel Prize laureate


FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS
USE POWERPOINT!
The famous article with this title, published by Thomas
Stewart in Fortune a decade ago, made a strong
Many content creators currently use PowerPoint to post
standalone, on-demand presentations. Two of the most
impression on PowerPoint users, by categorizing prevalent fields for standalone PowerPoint-based files
the tool as intellectually impaired, confusing, and are in the corporate arena, where businesses publish
overall disguising the speaker under uniform and promotional content; and online universities, which
overly simplified templates. Other catchy titles in the publish instructional content.
media such as Killing Me Microsoftly or PowerPoint
Is Evil continually capture and condemn the robotic 54% of participants reported
display of bullet points and the truncated language
typical of slideware. To emphasize the dubious nature experiencing a “high”” when spending
of PowerPoint, critics use strong phrases such as
“deadening sameness,” “vacuous monotony,” “the
time online.
Viagra of the spoken word”—overall, a product that has
led to a “general decline in public speaking.” Standalone electronic content has become popular
in part because people seem to seek it. According
Other critics agree that PowerPoint separates the to Nielsen research, while spending a minimum of 60
presenter from the audience, diminishes a presentation’s hours a month online, people spend 42% of that time
analytical quality, leads to more preoccupation with viewing online content. In another investigation of 1,000
format over content, and “instead of lifting the floor, managers worldwide, 54% of participants reported
it lowers the ceiling.” Over the past few decades, experiencing a “high” when spending time online and
PowerPoint has been particularly criticized when finding information they are seeking. It is consequently
presentations are used in face-to-face environments. no surprise that many viewers are searching and
However, in the past five years, a new trend has viewing PowerPoint files. This is evidenced by the fact
emerged: PowerPoint-based content has been delivered that approximately 10,000 on-demand PowerPoint
as a standalone option, without the need for a speaker. presentations are published monthly and worldwide.


Unfortunately, increased demand and availability of academia professionals alike: (1) Ubiquitous use of
content has also led to information overload, defined as PowerPoint for presentation design and information
the inability to process multiple communication inputs, processing, particularly as a standalone offering; (2)
which in turn can lead to emotional and cognitive A dichotomy in viewer information processing habits:
breakdown. In a survey of 124 managers from various on one hand, people seem to crave information, and
professional fields in Australia, Hong Kong, the U.K., on the other, they are overwhelmed by it; and (3) The
and the U.S., information overload was recognized availability of PowerPoint-based presentations that are
as a top professional issue, connected to difficulty or marked by too much similarity, making it more difficult
impossibility in managing information (62%), irrelevance for messages to stand out.
or unimportance of most of it (53%), and lack of time
to understand it (32%). Over the long term, information These observations invite the question: how does one
overload can lead to mental exhaustion, decreased distinguish a particular presentation, given existing
attention span, poor decision-making, and burnout. informational noise and competition? And knowing
that PowerPoint is a content delivery staple, how does
Given that currently many sources of information one bridge cognitive psychology, communication,
compete against each other and are often similar in education, and commerce to develop more memorable
content and format, providing the optimal amount and PowerPoint presentations?
type of information for either business or academia
audiences may mean long-term survival and profitability The proposed study aimed to investigate ways in which
for corporations and academic organizations. information can be made memorable, despite current
trends such as information overload, which can lead to

[ [
Based on the data evidenced thus far, there are inattention and which ultimately may result in lack of
three pertinent trends that may interest business and retention.

THE Does variety have benefits?
STUDY
Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google Inc., colorfully states: “Homogeneity is great for milk, but not for
ideas.” This is the idea that led to the current study: variety may have benefits, and it is worthwhile to apply this
concept to the way PowerPoint presentations are created. Figure 1 illustrates different views in which content
creators can analyze their PowerPoint files. Which one is likely to draw more attention and therefore become
more memorable: the one on the left, marked by variety, or the one on the right, marked by uniformity?

[ F I G U R E 1]


Significance of the
study
One of the ways to enable content to stand out and be in different lists, and isolation is produced by embedding
potentially more memorable is to make it incongruent an item of one type within a series of items of the other
with the rest of the context in which it is provided. This type and noticing what happens to recall at the global
technique is known as the distinctiveness or isolation level of the list. This is known as the spread of the
effect in memory. The isolation effect has shown that isolation effect.
items in a series can be made to stand out, and therefore
be more memorable. The significance of this study While researchers in the past have used items such as
consists of using an old theory (von Restorff isolation weights, colors, or sound frequency in order to study
effect) in new ways: making specific PowerPoint slides the impact of distinctiveness on memory, no study has
in a series of slides stand out and be potentially more linked the concept of distinctiveness to PowerPoint
memorable. slides. What happens in a specific slide may be as
important as what happens before and after that slide.
The concepts of information overload, cognitive To this end, the contribution to the isolation effect theory
overload, and isolation effects are not new. However, will be made by adding a fresh perspective on visual
the novel combination of these dimensions when distinctiveness and memory applied in a new context
applied to the realm of PowerPoint presentations, as such as PowerPoint presentations. While previous
used in the corporate and academic milieus, provides research designs focused on isolating elements such
a strong contribution. The study will use scientific rigor as nonsense syllables or interspersing numbers through
to determine ways in which PowerPoint slides can be one-word items, the current design is based on isolating
made more memorable by using the isolation effect. slides in a PowerPoint deck—a frequent means of
This particular approach has not been attempted in any communication used in business presentations and
previous scientific research. academia.
The proposed study is based on a theoretical framework Taking into consideration various views on the isolation
related to the isolation of an item against a homogeneous theory, the current study was initiated by several
background, which is supposed to facilitate retention of observations:
that item. This theory was initiated almost eight decades
ago when von Restorff presented participants either a
list of nine numbers and one syllable, or nine syllables 1 Color may influence recall when isolates
are used in learning situations.

2
and one number, and reported a higher recall for the
Changing of “materials” may improve
isolated items. This theoretical approach is called the
recall (e.g., switching from text to text +
von Restorff effect or isolation effect.
visuals and back to text).

3
Ever since this classic experiment, many other Structural organization (or spread of
researchers have investigated the isolation effect in isolate effect) may improve recall of the
different variations: presenting subjects with a list overall “list.”
containing the same items and changing the property
of one of the items (e.g., different color), including an
entirely different item in a list with the same items (e.g.,
a number inserted in a list of words), or manipulating
4 Meaning of the isolate may lead to
better recall (e.g., adding an emotionally
intense image to the list).
structural organization, where two item types are used
The design of the current study was intended to test all
What happens on a slide may be as three methods of isolation (isolation by color, isolation
by material, and semantic isolation) in an intentional
important as what happens before learning context. The design was selected because
and after that slide. it mimics real-life content development, usage, and
viewing habits for online PowerPoint files.

Data collection in the study was based on online forms
and surveys. Specifically, the following were used: 1)
Online form to validate the content for the PowerPoint
presentations; 2) Online forms used to administer the
Calibrate free-recall test for the two benchmarked PowerPoint
Content decks and the free-recall tests for each of the four
formal experiments conducted to test the proposed
five hypotheses. All data was captured via an online
Manip system, then exported to Microsoft Excel, and analyzed
ma rk ula
Bench the D te with SPSS.
esign
Population and Sample
The study used a convenience sample of 1,540
participants, selected from an existing database of
METHODOLOGY individuals from various professional organizations.
Overall, the majority of participants were female (60%),
The current study applied the isolation effect in various 40% males. Most participants were 50+ years of age (43%),
PowerPoint files in order to measure how many slides followed by 40–49 years of age (19%). In regard to field
people remember from a PowerPoint presentation. The of work, the majority of participants came from corporate
methodology in this study was based on a direct test, (63%), followed by academia. 57% of the participants had
where audience members were invited to view 20 slides, webcasting knowledge, 44% of the participants did not.
and then asked to think back on what specific content
Two separate invitations were sent in order to
they remembered from those slides.
select participants in the study. The first invitation
Performance was measured through a free-recall test, was sent with the goal to obtain 60 volunteers who
where information recall was considered the dependent helped to calibrate the PowerPoint content. The link
variable. In this study, scores were awarded for the recall in the email-based invitation took the volunteering
of accurate facts on the concept of webcasting, which participants to a Web site that included more details
was the subject matter for all the slides. For instance, about informed consent, and concrete steps on
such guidelines included: “Focus on only one main idea how to calibrate each of the 40 slides (see Figure 2).
about your content, supported by three points,” “It’s not After participants viewed the last slide, a thank-you
enough to be useful. You must be useful and interesting message was displayed, which informed them that
and quotable,” or “Don’t wear stripes because they the calibration process was complete and they would
dance around on the screen and are distracting.” receive the results of the research once the entire study
Participants did not have to recall the exact words, but was finished.
they needed to report back the gist of the sentence,
demonstrating they understood the essence of the
statement.
The methodology for this quantitative, experimental
research was divided into three phases:
Calibrate the content to be included in the PowerPoint
decks to meet criteria for validity and reliability
(Calibration phase); Determine a benchmark of an
average number of slides that are typically remembered
from a PowerPoint presentation with neutral information,
and whether there is a pattern in which specific slides
are recalled or whether audiences remember slides at
random (Benchmark phase); and manipulate the design
of the benchmarked PowerPoint decks to determine
whether specific slides can be remembered and [FIGURE 2]
whether there will be a general improvement in content Once the Calibration phase was complete, another
memorability (Formal Experiment phase). email-based invitation was sent to the rest of the

database (approximately 12,000 people) in order to ask for volunteers for the other two phases in the study: the
Benchmark phase and the four Formal Experiments.
Volunteers were taken to a Web site that included additional details about the study, in addition to informed consent
material that clarified the terms of the engagement. Viewers were invited to read the available information and informed
consent, and click a Next button, which then randomly assigned them to one of the 26 conditions in the study.
The 20 pieces of content from all PowerPoint decks in the study are included in Table 1. The content is important
to consider because the tests and analyses conducted depend on the nature of this content.
[ TA B L E 1]

SLIDE CONTENT INCLUDED (this stayed the same in all the decks, except in some decks, the sequence of the slide was shuffled)

1 Focus only on one main idea about your content, supported by three points.

2 If someone asks you a question, 30 seconds is a good length of time for an answer. 30 seconds is longer
than you think.

3 You have 0% control over the questions you’re asked in the chat box, but you have 100% control over the
answers you give. Prepare.

4 It’s not enough to be useful. You must be useful and interesting and quotable.

5 Pop culture references make for good quotes and sound bites.

6 Don’t wear stripes because they dance around on the screen and are distracting.
If you wear anything distracting in a webcast, people will remember that and nothing you say.

7 Don’t wear white. It glows and it becomes the most noticeable thing on the video screen.

8 Pastel shirts work well on video.

9 Don’t wear black; it is too harsh and can suck up all the light.

10 Don’t wear bright reds. They “bleed” on camera and are distracting.

11 Video will suck the natural energy out of your voice.
If you don’t boost your energy level, like you are telling a story in a noisy restaurant, you will sound flat and
monotonous on the video camera.

12 If you want to know how engaging you look on camera, videotape yourself giving the presentation, then
watch the recording with the volume off.

13 Don’t sit behind a desk during a webcast that captures your entire body. Sit in an open chair, or present while
standing.

14 Drink plenty of water before the webcast, or you will lick your lips.

15 Keep your hair out of your eyes and combed neatly. Otherwise, people will focus on nothing but your hair
and will miss your message.

16 Don’t look at the camera unless there is no one around to speak to.
It is easier talking to a human being than it is talking to a piece of metal.

17 Don’t lean back in your chair; you’ll look short and fat.

18 Lean forward 15° into the camera; you’ll look taller, leaner, and more confident.

19 Keep your hands out in front of you and ready to gesture.
If you move your hands, you will seem more confident and more interesting to watch.

20 Smile all the time, especially when someone else is talking.


Sample of a slide from the deck
that participants viewed online.

A Web site was programmed to host all 26 PowerPoint to complete a free-recall test. Each response was
files that were part of the experiments, the free- associated with a correct/incorrect label by two coders.
recall test interface, and test results. The site was These coders assigned 1 point for a correct response
programmed such that participants could access and and 0 points for an incorrect response, and mapped
view a PowerPoint file only once. each 1 or 0 with a specific slide number. The inter-coder
reliability was calculated using the kappa coefficient.
Upon completion of each experiment (Benchmark and For this study, the average agreement between the two
four Formal Experiments), participants were asked coders was .87, considered a good agreement.

[ THE RESULTS [
1 Participants remembered an average of 4 slides
from a 20-slide, standalone, text-only PowerPoint
presentation.
4
Applying the isolation effect every nth slide (3rd,
4th, or 5th) did not impact the overall recall of an
entire deck.

2 There was a statistically significant difference
between the recall of content in text-only slides
versus slides that contained text and neutral
5 However, when a change was made every 5th
position (i.e., slides 5, 10, 15, and 20), those slides
tended to be remembered better than any other
visuals. However, the recall rate did not exceed 4 randomly selected slides from that deck. The reverse
slides. was true for slides changed in every 3rd and 4th

3
position.
Participants tended to remember similar slides,
which indicates that their content can be further
analyzed to identify commonalities.


4
MAGIC NUMBER FOUR
MAGIC NUMBER FOUR
MAGIC NUMBER FOUR
MAGIC NUMBER FOUR
In this study, memory capacity reached four slides there, when the capacity of approximately four items
for the six groups (480 people) during the Benchmark had been exceeded.
phase; this number did not increase across the other 20
groups (1,000 people) during the Formal Experiments. Most studies taken into consideration, including Miller’s
Regardless of the distinctiveness effect applied (e.g., famous “7 ± 2,” were focused on short-term memory.
changing background color, alternating between slides The present study focused more on the concept of
with text-only and text and neutral visuals, or replacing long-term memory. Converting short-term memory
neutral visuals with emotional visuals), the number of to long-term memory is called memory consolidation
recalled slides stayed constant. The questions that and is time-dependent. This process can happen
arise are: Why four slides? Is four a low number, a high within minutes or hours from learning, and results in
number, or just what is expected? Does the isolation structural and functional changes to neurons. As time
effect help or hinder recall? And does it make a difference passes, the connections between different neocortical
where the four slides are positioned in the series of 20 regions strengthen, allowing for a single memory to be
slides? To answer these questions, it is beneficial to accessed independently (which is why the test for this
revisit several theories of how memory works. study was sent 48 hours after participants viewed the
presentation). If long-term memories are not accurate or
To provide a simplified view of memory processes, cannot be retrieved at all, it may indicate that problems
several researchers have offered segmentation based happened during encoding or retrieval.
on time (short-term, long-term), content (episodic,
semantic, procedural), and consciousness (implicit, The proper encoding of memory requires attention,
explicit). Regarding short-term storage, no paper on and since attention is limited, only a few stimuli enter
memory capacity and short-term memory can escape conscious awareness. Researchers are still debating
without quoting Miller’s classic “seven plus or minus two,” whether the filtering of stimuli happens during the
which has often been used in the fields of psychology sensory input or after the significance of the stimuli
and education as pillars for creating guidelines on has been processed. However, there is agreement on
information processing and communication design. the fact that how people pay attention to information
Miller contended that there is a limit in the number of may determine how much they remember. The
items that working memory can retain (namely, 7±2). isolation theory selected for this study was intended to
potentially prompt people to pay attention to items that
were distinct in some way (either by color or structure)
and help with the overall encoding of the “list” of slides.
The new magic number is 4±1. From this regard, using the isolation effect at encoding
was useful because a correlation was found between
improved recall and the application of an isolation effect
every 5th slide.
Other researchers have since questioned the limitations
of memory capacity and suggested that the new magic
number is 4±1. Others observed that people form
clusters of no more than three or four items to recall
and items in a list entered a fixed-capacity rehearsal
buffer, and displaced a randomly selected item already


[ images [
Using neutral

In this study, the inclusion of neutral images in text-based
slides helped improve recall. Even though memory did
The surprising findings...

So far, it has been noted how memory problems can
occur at encoding and how the isolation effect can
not go beyond four slides in all conditions, there was help mediate some of these problems (namely forcing
a statistically significant difference between the recall attention toward items that are visually distinct in
of text-only slides compared to slides containing text some way). Memory problems can also occur during
and neutral visuals. This observation confirms existing retrieval. In the present study, memory was tested
research findings, according to which the processing of using free recall, 48 hours after participants viewed the
a visual stimulus has a positive influence on memory. PowerPoint presentation. This decision was based on
One explanation for picture superiority springs from the consideration that free recall tests typically yield
Pavio’s (1991) dual encoding theory, which mentions larger size effects. A free recall test may resemble
that the representations for pictures and words are real-life situations better, because in real life, people
stored in two separate memory systems, and pictures are not often provided cues or multiple choice tests in
are represented by an image code, while words by a order to prove how much they know about webcasting
verbal code. Paivio suggested that pictures often show guidelines (the topic of the presentation). In addition, a
recall superiority because they are dually encoded (i.e., free recall test provided a very rich dataset, on which
they evoke both the image and the verbal code). These further qualitative analysis can be conducted.
two memory traces increase the probability of retrieving
Despite advantages, free recall may be harder on
an event.
memory compared to cued recall or recognition tasks
Just because the addition of neutral images to text- (as evidenced by many participants in the current study
based slides leads to better recall, it does not mean who, before inserting their answers, exclaimed: “What,
that all slides in a PowerPoint deck must have images. no multiple choice? No cues?”). Free recall may be
After all, there are several studies which claim that, more difficult because during free recall, an item is first
even though lists of images are learned better than lists retrieved from memory by a search process, and then
of words, they are not necessarily retained better over it is tested by the recognition process to determine if it
time, and when free recall is used. Imagery is not always belongs to the to-be-recalled list.
guaranteed to facilitate long-term memory.
In addition, the organization of materials presented is
Using these memory theories and the findings in this known to facilitate free recall, because free recall involves
study, content designers may keep in mind these two a search phase; an organized list is easier to search for
considerations: than an unorganized list. By contrast, recognition does
not include this search phase, and therefore it is not
Some slides that used the isolation effect showed better impacted by organization. This observation matches
recall compared to other slides in the same deck, and the findings of the current study, where the four most
some of those isolated slides did not include images—all frequently recalled slides could be “organized” around
that was needed was that something was changed (or the concept of what to wear and what not to wear during a
made distinct) compared to the design of the 4 preceding webcast; these slides grouped around similar concepts
slides (in some cases, this meant the exclusion of the were recalled even though they were not presented in
image if the preceding 4 slides had visuals). the same sequence in all conditions. Overall, the decks
in all conditions did not have a specific organization. In
Text-based slides were remembered, especially when they future similar research, a potential improvement to the
contained “visual words,” or words that painted concrete study design is to provide the topic to be remembered in
mental pictures in an audience’s mind (e.g., “don’t wear several obvious sections and observe whether a formal
white,” “don’t wear black”). These two specifications can be structure impacts recall.
critical in the design of on-demand PowerPoint presentations,
How can content designers benefit from insights
particularly because the inclusion of images in all slides may
related to potential problems at retrieval? Prior to the
imply additional design time and cost. Both can be saved
creation of any on-demand presentation, assuming that
knowing that text is a viable design element when used as
remembering information is important, content creators
an isolation technique after more visually intense slides, and can ask the question:
when used with words that paint mental pictures.


How will viewers “prove” that they remembered the
content? Will they be provided with cues to which they Free recall is a two-stage process: in
need to react? Or will they have to rely on free recall and
act on the information without any cues? If the latter, order for a concept to be recalled, it
sound organization of the materials may be critical.
must be both successfully retrieved
This is not a trivial remark because, as more presentations
are distributed for on-demand retrieval, many do not
and recognized.
follow a specific organization. Figure 3 shows the
typical flow of a corporate presentation. There is an For recognition (versus free recall), contextual cues
agenda slide that appears only once (which is typical are critical (e.g., context information originally stored
for business presentations—the agenda is shown in the with the content). In fact, one of the challenges for
beginning of the presentation and not repeated). It may the isolation effect is that while it may provide distinct
be beneficial for this slide to be repeated after each elements at encoding, there is no context at retrieval,
section, so that the organization can be “practiced” and especially when testing is done through free recall. This
potentially retained better, especially as viewers may not is why the use of corporate or academic templates
be cued later. Many presentations on Slideshare.net, may be beneficial (despite frequent complaints that
for instance, contain an array of slides (sometimes even templates lead to boring design): they can provide
upward of 80 slides), without a distinctive organization. enough contextual cues and physical similarity so
The reader can perform a quick test by accessing the that the next time viewers experience a PowerPoint
Slideshare.net site, viewing any of the popular on- presentation, they know to associate it with a specific
demand PowerPoint decks available on any topic, and brand or entity.
seeing how many files present an easily identifiable and
manageable organizational structure.

The flow of a corporate presentation, which can benefit from
repeating the agenda slide for emphasizing organization.

[FIGURE 3]


So far, observations have been made on memory primacy and recency effects. They remarked that the
capacity and problems that can occur during encoding first and last items in a list might be recalled better
and retrieval. The use of the isolation effect can help because, when analyzed globally, the beginning and
by drawing attention to specific items and the use of ending are more distinct; their sheer positioning attracts
contextual cues can improve recall. A frequently asked more attention. Viewers may pay less and less attention
question around the concept of memory is: To what to each item as the list progresses, thus creating a
extent does the sequence of items in a list influence primacy effect. This gradient model could be applied
long-term memory? to explain some of the findings in the present research
study: people tended to remember slides from the first

Serial Positioning half of the presentation (i.e., 6, 7, 8, and 9), and memory
faded toward the end. This held true for the shuffled and
The concepts of primacy and recency effects are non-shuffled decks. The practical guideline derived from
these observations is for content creators to consider
well-known constructs in psychology. According to
placing the most important parts of a presentation in
these principles, people may remember items from the
the first half of an on-demand file.
beginning and ending of a list a lot more than items in
the middle of a list (depending on the presence of a So far, it appears that four items is a typical number
distracter task, the speed of the presentation, and the to be recalled and those four items should be placed
list length). These observations are typically linked to toward the beginning of a list for better recall. Is there
short-term memory recall tests. When long-term memory anything else that can be done if content designers
is concerned, and given a longer list length (conditions want to ensure which specific four slides are recalled
that describe the present study), researchers have (versus fearing that slides are recalled at random)?
observed that people make a fixed number of searches

Controlling the Magic
for items in the long-term store, and the probability of
retrieving a particular item is lower when there are more

Four
items. This observation matches the findings in the
current study, where the first slide in all 26 conditions
did not receive a high recall rate (in both shuffled and
Even though participants in the study remembered only
non-shuffled decks).
four slides out of 20, they seemed to remember similar
slides. This is wonderful news for content creators
because even though some people may be disappointed
More recent studies have with a low recall rate, at least they may be able to control
found significant serial which four slides are remembered. From this angle, two
questions come to focus: 1) Did distinctiveness help
positioning when analyzing the with the recall of specific items? and 2) What were the
recall rate of commercials characteristics of the most frequently recalled slides?

broadcast during the Super This finding can be matched with observations from
two separate memory models: researchers who
Bowl. observed that after four items, elements in a list start
displacing previous items; and the distinctiveness
model, according to which elements that deviate from
They discovered that commercials presented during
a list tend to be recalled better. As previously stated,
the first batch of ads were remembered significantly
to impact which slides are remembered, a practical
better than commercials displayed in the middle or at
guideline for content designers is to implement a distinct
the end of the program. Since alcohol and tedium that
change every 5th slide. In the current study, the changes
may occur during a football game are likely to interfere
consisted of switching background colors from light to
with a study, Terry (2005) replicated the research in lab
dark, eliminating pictures, or replacing neutral images
conditions, and asked students to view 15 commercials.
with more emotional pictures. Future research may
In a long-term test, he observed that the primacy effect
consider other types of distinct contrast (e.g., switching
held strong, while the recency effect faded.
from serious to humorous, from small to large font or
Reflecting on serial positioning effects, several pictures, from expected to unexpected concepts, etc.).
researchers proposed various explanations for the


Unfortunately, what happens often is that content
In the current study, designers present or train on three or four separate

in the decks where a
objectives, but not a lot of time is spent determining
how these objectives tie together. This is becoming
change occurred every more dangerous as content designers or academic
professionals advertise the availability of knowledge
5th slide, those slides were in small chunks; unfortunately, these small bites are
remembered better than any the educational equivalent of unhealthy snacks. They
may feel good for the moment but they do not easily
randomly selected slides from integrate within a healthy diet. Each time a section in
the same decks. a presentation is included, it is beneficial to ask: How
does it connect or integrate with everything else?

Regarding distinctiveness, one may wonder: Why did it Schemas—cognitive frameworks that help people
not make a difference where a change was made every organize and interpret information around them—are
3rd or 4th slide? The answer may come from research also known to have an impact on recall. This may be
which suggests that in order for the brain to perceive a due to the fact that schemas influence the way new
difference, it must first perceive the quality of sameness. information is processed and they guide people’s
In the deck where a change was made every 3rd or expectations as to what should occur.
4th slide, that change may have appeared too quickly,
and there was not enough time for “sameness” to be
perceived. The practical guideline for content designers
Slides that are linked together may
is to ensure that at least four slides are similar before be remembered better.
something is changed. This may be good news for those
who sometimes question the use of templates when
One of the reasons participants tended to remember
crafting presentations (often associated with tedious
similar slides (e.g., slides 6, 7, 8, 9) may be because
design). The advantage of templates in presentations
these slides contained information that deviated from
is that they prompt the designer to use the same
existing schemas around presentation guidelines and
elements, which establishes consistency and therefore
may have been perceived as novel. Typically, information
some amount of sameness. Deviating from the template
about webcasts may include guidelines related to how
every 5th slide may refresh attention and lead to better
to organize a message, how to best use pictures and
recall.
fonts, or how to create user interactivity with chat
So far, it has been noted that a slide sequence optimized boxes or polling questions. These four popular slides
for recall is to include the most important information in contained information that may have been unexpected
the first half of a deck and to apply a distinctiveness because the guidelines are derived from a different
effect every 5th slide. There are several other memory field—broadcasting—but are applicable to webcasting:
theories tied to the concept of item sequence and don’t wear black, white, red, or stripes.
improved recall. Several researchers have suggested
The practical guideline for content creators is to include
that memory works on a chaining mechanism, where
novel information for better retention (which usually
the recall of an item depends on its predecessors,
comes as a result of a thorough audience analysis to
and items that appear later in the chain depend on the
find out what they would consider as new). One side
accurate recall of previous items. These observations
note to this observation related to novelty is that in the
match the findings in the current study where a few
current study, participants who identified themselves
items that had tighter links (e.g., what to wear) were
as knowledgeable in webcasting remembered less than
remembered better than items that were not strongly
those who labeled themselves as novices. Research in
connected.
advertising hints at a similar fact: those viewers exposed
This concept is also related to the well-known idea to unfamiliar ads engage in more extensive processing
of chunking. Adults may expand an otherwise limited and those exposed to familiar ads are less engaged
working memory capacity by grouping related units. For and involved in more confirmation-based processing.
example, people remember the sequence PBSBBCCNN This observation helps to confirm that novelty is critical
better after dividing it into three smaller units: the for capturing attention, even when an audience may
television acronyms PBS, BBC, and CNN . consider themselves advanced.


In addition to chunking, and novelty, another recalled slides. The word “wear” was repeated four
characteristic that slides 6, 7, 8, and 9 may have times, such as in what to wear or not to wear (e.g.,
shared is that the language used to phrase them was don’t wear stripes, black, or white; and wear pastels).
highly visual or could be pictured easily, without much Linking this to the idea of clustering, research suggests
mental effort (e.g., don’t wear white, black, red, or that during recall, words that are repeated along some
stripes). This observation is tied to the dual encoding dimension are recalled successively. This repetition can
theory mentioned earlier: concrete labels are easier be semantic (items that often appear together in text),
to remember than abstract labels because concrete temporal (items that were clustered together in the list),
words can be encoded in two separate ways, one or source (items that were studied using the same task).
involving an image and the other involving a verbal Practically speaking, it may be beneficial for content
code or meaning. This observation matches research designers to use similarity of items that are important
from advertising, according to which high-imagery in a presentation to be recalled. Figure 4 shows how
words are remembered a lot better than low-imagery or in a professional presentation, words such as RPM,
abstract words. In the current study, the slides that had Revenue, and Revolution are repeated on a few slides,
concrete language were recalled with higher frequency making these terms more likely to be recalled later.
even in the decks that had no pictures. The practical
guideline for content creators is to use concrete and
highly visual words more often than abstract words that Another characteristic
may be harder to visualize, therefore recall. In fact, the
least remembered slides were the ones that contained of the four popular slides is
abstract language (e.g., “It is not enough to be useful. that they contained negative
information (e.g., “don’t wear
You must be useful, interesting, and quotable.”)
Several researchers contend that negative information
is more memorable in the sense that people tend to
stripes, don’t wear white,
remember more details. Some studies show that the don’t wear black”).
right fusiform gyrus, a region responsible for processing
exemplar-specific details, displayed higher activity during
the successful encoding of negative objects. Activity In summary, in order to influence which four slides
in the right amygdala also correlated with memory for are remembered specifically, content designers may
visual detail. If recalling details is important to content consider applying an isolation effect every 5th slide
designers, then expressing content in negative terms to provide enough sameness before distinctiveness is
may be a solution to consider. If remembering the gist detected, clustering important slides together, deviating
of the information is sufficient, then positive content from expected schemas with novel information, using
may be suitable. concrete and highly visual language, and if details
are important, expressing thoughts as negative
Repetition was another trait shared by the four most statements.


[FIGURE 4]

Example of repetition in an on-demand PowerPoint presentation

Memory and Source produce interference. In the current study, when asked
what they remembered from the 20-slide presentation,

Confusion 80% of participants submitted a combination of
correct answers, some correct but incomplete
In the past, psychologists believed that memory for answers, incorrect responses, and comments on
specific information created a separate memory trace, presentation design or the research study. 8% of
which faded over time, unless it was given specific participants submitted valid responses, but not from
cues to be accessed later. The newer view, which this study. For example, participants remarked that
this study is taking into consideration, suggests that they remembered that “reading from a script can lead
when a person interacts with a presentation or content to monotone, which is boring,” “tell a story,” “don’t read
in general, the memory for it interferes with other bullet points from the slide,” “get a good night’s rest,”
information in storage, including pertinent information “start on time,” “use polls and interactive exercises to
from other sources as well as personal experience. keep an audience engaged”… all of which was great
information, but not received from this study.
Memory represents a Only 9% admitted to truly remembering nothing and
dynamic process that is phrased it as such (e.g., “Sorry, I don’t even remember
what the presentation was about. Pretty sad…”
subject to change. “Truthfully, I’ve been sitting here for a few minutes
trying to remember and I can’t seem to remember any
Based on this newer view of how memory works and of the slides. Hmmm, perhaps it’s due to menopause,”
on the findings from this research study, an important “Wow, this is really crazy, but I don’t remember one
issue to consider for any content designer is the fact slide from that deck,” “Sorry, I truly don’t remember
that the amount and type of information that already anything right now,” “I honestly do not remember
exists in someone’s memory on a specific topic can anything.”). The rest of the participants had a lot more


information to report, even though in many cases, it commercial and the entity that created it). However,
was not the correct or complete information. the reminder is that repetition must not lead to too
much similarity. In fact, the more similar messages
It is important to note that some participants who are, the more source confusion arises. The pragmatic
viewed the on-demand presentation also viewed a few guideline for any content designer is to consider a
other presentations from the author, which confirms the message carefully and weigh its similarity against other
interference theory. As one participant confesses very on-demand presentations of the same topic.
well (remembering Tufte, an acclaimed PowerPoint
guru): “My mind is now conflating what was on the pdf It has been noted so far that memory is not static and
from the Adobe webinar last week, and what was in can hardly be compared to a videotape from which
this PowerPoint webcasting test, and what I’ve seen information is retrieved later, as old memory models
on other best practices for PowerPoint, and a dash believed. Taking into consideration that memory is
of Tufte! Anything else I put here would be generated dynamic, subject to change, and reconstructive (rather
from my various ideas about PowerPoint webcasting, than reproductive), the spreading activation model
not from memory of the presentation as such.” may be appropriate to consider here because it refers
to memory as an evolving process. According to this
model, concepts are linked via a network and when
Source confusion is a well- one is activated, energy is spread to other related
known memory error. concepts. When a viewer observes an on-demand
PowerPoint presentation (in this case on the topic of
webcasting), concepts related to the content become
active, as do concepts related to the design and
The content (in this case the webcasting topic) is presentation of the materials.
remembered first, and the source is identified later. In
a classic experiment, subjects “remembered” seeing Even though complex, the process of memory is a
Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, even though Bugs Bunny highly efficient system. When people view similar
is not a Disney character. Duracell has discovered information over time, that information is collapsed
that 40% of consumers who remember the bunny together, forming a schema or a mental model.
campaign, believe it is advertising Duracell, not
Energizer. When seeing an ad that is similar to another For example, when people view information related
from a more established company, consumers tend to presentation design guidelines, they may not
to remember the message from the more renowned remember all the individual presentations, but they may
source. This may explain why principles included in remember certain principles and categories from those
the present study were attributed to Tufte, who is an presentations due to continuous activation. These
authority in the realm of PowerPoint and presentation schemas may be explicit (e.g., viewers may remember
design. Source confusion errors may occur when a specific book in which they read certain presentation
there is a high degree of similarity between messages. design guidelines), or implicit, such as having a positive
Seeing similar messages may activate similar networks affect as a result of viewing a presentation.
in memory.
The reminder for content designers is that the memory Memory is dynamic, subject to
for a particular presentation is not independent from
other information in memory. This poses the question: change, and reconstructive .
Can repetition and distinctiveness improve linkages
so that people remember specific information, and
attribute it to the right source? After all, it is unfair for Research suggests that the memory for explicit
a content designer or faculty member to create sound information and particular details is less stable than
content if the credit goes to a better-known source. the underlying associations within a schema, which are
more implicit. This finding was reflected in the current
Some researchers advocate that repetition may study because many participants mentioned in their
help to solidify schematic structure and strengthen responses that they enjoyed viewing the presentation
the link to the information source (in the same way even though they did not remember many details (e.g.,
that a consumer remembers both the content of the “I don’t remember any specifics. I only remember that


Viewers will retain a general feeling of whether they enjoyed it or not, which influences how they may view
the next encounter with materials from the same source. Designers can strive to create any presentation
as a great presentation. If greater effort is placed into creating outstanding presentations, there are more
chances of people coming back to a source that creates positive feelings.

I thought it has good advice,” “Although I thought it influencing consumers’ recollection of the past is likely
was a very interesting presentation, I am drawing a to be greater than the ability to transform the future.
complete blank,” “Wow. Either I need to go visit my Future research in the memorability of presentation
doctor to get diagnosed for early memory loss, or design can seek to understand what happens with
you have made a wonderful point. I am at a complete recall when on-demand presentations are followed up
loss. I remember the slides being very plain and the by additional materials, and what follow-up intervals
background would change per slide, but the content did are optimal for improved recall.
not stay with me as I thought it would originally,” “I have
forgotten pretty much everything! I do know that there In conclusion, memory is dynamic and reconstructive
were good tips in there, but damned if I can remember (rather than reproductive). Content designers can
what they were or anything about the content or the avoid source confusion by creating messages that
paired images. I’m sorry! I only remember an overall are not too similar to other messages viewers may
sense of ‘that was an interesting presentation.’”). As be processing. Greater effort must be placed into
a practical guideline derived from these observations, creating quality presentations with each delivery effort
content designers and faculty members may keep in because even though viewers may not remember all
mind that while viewers may not remember a lot of details, they will retain a general feeling of whether
details from a particular presentation, they will retain a the presentation was pleasant and useful. Follow-up
general feeling of whether they enjoyed it or not, which may be as important to memory as the initial encoding
influences how they may view the next encounter with of information, so consider providing additional
materials from the same source. As a result, designers materials on the same concepts after the release of
can strive to create any presentation as a great the on-demand presentation. It is beyond the scope
presentation, because in a world where everyone can of this study to determine optimal follow-up time, but
create and deliver a presentation at any given moment, research in advertising can provide a starting point,
viewers have lots of choices. If greater effort is placed particularly considering the concepts of how familiar
into creating outstanding presentations, there are or unfamiliar an audience is with the entity that designs
more chances of people coming back to a source that the on-demand presentations. For example, where
creates positive feelings. brand familiarity is concerned, message effectiveness
increases with low levels of repetition and decreases
as repetition increases. When viewers access an on-
If memory is malleable and demand presentation from an unknown entity, there are

’influenced, this means
viewers past experiences
’ two cognitive processes that may come into play: a)
reaction to the unfamiliar source, and b) reaction to the
can be new content. When the content comes from a familiar
that what happens after a source, cognitive processes are involved only for the
content. Wear-out tends to occur more frequently
presentation can influence how when the message comes from an unfamiliar brand.
that experience is remembered. Keeping these considerations in mind, it may be useful
for a content creator to ensure that the “brand” that
issues the presentation is strong and familiar first, and
Content designers and faculty members may look at then expend effort on creating memorable slides.
on-demand presentation delivery not as a single event,
but as a continuum, because materials sent after a
presentation is made available may influence the way Memory and Emotion
the experience of the initial event is remembered. Post- One of the distinctiveness effects applied in this study
experiences can influence memories. This is confirmed was the inclusion of emotional pictures (included
by research in advertising: ads are sometimes noticed on all slides or alternated with neutral images). The
more after a consumer has used a product. In fact, expectation was that emotional images enhance

memory because emotional information benefits from slides, researchers included unrelated, neutral objects
amygdala activation, which promotes consolidation (e.g., mittens, feathers). People showed equal recall for
and long-term memory. both neutral and emotional pictures but they struggled
to remember which neutral object was related to which
A cautionary remark on emotional stimuli is that due emotional picture or other neutral object. These findings
to the fact that attention and memory are limited, suggest that it is harder to recall associations than it is
the inclusion of emotional elements can attract more to recall independent images. The practical guideline for
attention, at the expense of peripheral details. Emotional content designers is to ensure that words and images
components may benefit from a “spotlight” effect or included in an emotionally charged slide are an integral
act as an “attention magnet” and consequently lead to part of each other—otherwise, they may compete with
privileged processing, resulting in enhanced memory. each other and memory is either impaired or a chance
This may account for those situations when people may is missed to improve recall.
remember emotional materials in a commercial (e.g.,
humorous or romantic scenes), but not the product that But what does being “an integral part” really mean?
was advertised. In the present study, a similar situation Research suggests the principles of proximity and
was observed: some people remembered some of the continuation to ensure that words and images are an
emotional pictures (e.g., person skiing on sand, woman integral part of each other, and provide unity. These
doing a yoga pose to reach a laptop, red lips, or frog concepts are tied to Gestalt, a psychology term, which
asking to be kissed), but they did not remember the signifies “unified whole.” Continuation occurs when
context behind the picture. This matches findings the eyes are guided to move from one object to the
from researchers who maintain that when words and next object (elements arranged on a line or curve are
emotional images are concerned, if the information perceived to be more related). Proximity occurs when
is part of the visual (such as color or location), those elements that are placed together are perceived as
details will be better retained in memory. By contrast, being part of the same group. For example, in Figure 5
if words are just paired up with images (even though below, which was used in one of the 26 manipulations
there is some association), memory is either impaired, in the present study, the first design (Example A) shows
or does not increase. separation of the text and image while the second
(Example B) shows the text being part of the image.
Several researchers showed people a set of neutral
pictures and another set of emotionally negative
pictures (e.g., robbery on a subway). In the corner of the

[FIGURE 5]

EXAMPLE A EXAMPLE B


Regarding integration, a point needs to be made curve are processed together. In Figure 6, Example A
about the template system that currently exists in (extracted from one of the PowerPoint files from the
the PowerPoint software. If picture/word integration present study) indicates how the text is separated from
leads to better memory, most available templates are the image because the person is looking away from
fundamentally flawed because they promote picture/ the text and into the computer. In Example B, notice
text separation. This means that greater care must how the picture has been reversed and the viewer is
be taken when being tempted to simply use default likely to look at the image first and then “continue”
templates for creating on-demand PowerPoint processing the slide by looking at the text. This type of
presentations, without consideration for perception continuation adds coherence to the slide and makes
and memory theories. it look more integrated. In future research, PowerPoint
files created for the scope of observing recall will
Continuation also leads to better integration as benefit from applying the principles of proximity and
elements perceived to be part of the same line or continuation.

[FIGURE 6]

EXAMPLE A EXAMPLE B

Inserting pictures that face the text will lead to continuation and
the processing of the slide as a unified whole.

Brief Qualitative Analysis receive a correct score if it provided the correct behavior,
regardless of the reasoning. For instance, participants
All participants in the study (1,480) submitted their who simply reported that they must not wear black,
responses to the question “What do you remember white, red, or stripes in a webcast received a correct
from the 20 slides you viewed?” in a qualitative format, score, even though they did not report on the reason
which coders mapped to either correct or incorrect why those colors or patterns were not appropriate.
responses. Based on the rich nature of the responses, Even though 29% of the overall sample recalled zero
a brief qualitative analysis was conducted to examine slides, it was interesting to note what “zero” meant. To
the nature of the entries, beyond the mere correct this extent, all qualitative answers were analyzed and
or incorrect assignment. Prior to the coding of the the following eight patterns emerged (more than one
responses, it was agreed that a response would still category applies per participant):


1 Participants who truly remembered nothing: 9%.

2 Participants who remembered nothing but still wrote 2–7 lines of comments, in the form of apologies, excuses,
or criticism of the study: 20%.

3 Participants who remembered some correct content regardless of how many slides: 54%.

4 Participants who remembered some correct content but reported it incompletely: 53%.

5 Participants who had some correct answers but incorrect reasoning: 5%.

6 Participants who reported correct answers related to what to do in a webcast or in presentation skills in
general, but not from this study: 8%.

7 Participants who provided some form of incorrect content: 23%.

8 Participants who commented on the design of the slides (instead of or in addition to recalled content):
21%.

Limitations and Future The topic included (webcasting) was declarative in
nature. It would be interesting to note results where

Research the content is procedural, more abstract, related more
to statistics and charts, or even a combination of these
The current study focused on observing the isolation items and switching between types of information. The
effect in a 20-slide PowerPoint presentation. It started present study involved an intentional learning situation
with a “list” of slides that contained an array of (participants were formally instructed to remember
guidelines on what to do and wear during a webcast. as much as they could from the presentation). In an
The guidelines were not organized according to any incidental learning situation (with no formal instructions
particular criteria and the presentation was accessed for viewers to remember anything), will recall be higher
via standalone means (consequently there was no or less than four slides? Since incidental learning is
presenter to “defend” the content, answer questions, selective by nature, then using the isolation effect may
or ask viewers to participate). Participants were be appropriate to make items stand out when the user
instructed to remember as much as they could from may not have a preference. Will the isolated items have
the presentation, but not take notes. Their long- to be better linked to the learning task in order to be
term memory was tested 48 hours after viewing the remembered more?
PowerPoint presentation via a free-recall test where
the order in which the items were reported was not People tended to make errors
considered important. Any change in any of the
toward the end of the recall
conditions described here could lead to different results
in future research with a similar topic and scope. process and those errors
For instance, some immediate questions arise: Will triggered more errors, which led to
memory capacity still cap out at four slides if the recall termination.
number of slides increases from 20 to 30, 40, or 50+
slides? Will recall differ if the test is administered
immediately versus after 48 hours? Will varying the size It may also be interesting to study whether a different
and meaningfulness of the isolate impact recall? In the test format impacts recall rate (i.e., instead of choosing
present study, the isolates selected may have been free recall, would cued recall or recognition make a
too “mild.” Perhaps choosing more dramatic contrast difference?). Would conducting a free recall test in
can have a stronger effect (e.g., switching from simple person (rather than online) offer additional insights
slides with just a few lines of text and one small picture into how people transition from one response to
to slides that have no text and one large picture; or to another, and when they determine that their answer is
even more emotionally charged pictures). “complete”? How do they react when they realize they
make errors?


For example, some researchers showed that people professionals interested in constantly learning
tended to make errors toward the end of the recall more about how to create effective presentations.
process and those errors triggered more errors, which 1,223 participants (out of 1,540) originated from this
led to recall termination. Given that participants may database. The other 317 participants were recruited
be in a rush when responding to questions, it may with the help of several companies and individuals
be interesting to study at what point they give up. who asked for permission to forward the link to the
This would be important because recall termination study to their own databases or connections because
ultimately determines how many items are recalled, they became interested and excited about the nature
taking into consideration the contiguity effect, of the research and its pragmatic potential.
according to which people associate neighboring
items at encoding and later successfully recall items Overall, these organizations forwarded the link to over
studied in neighboring positions. If the recall of an item 100,000 people, which means the click-through rate
is perceived as poor, then proximate list positions may (CTR) to recruit participants from cold lists was 0.003%.
also be impacted. This percentage was fairly low, compared to the typical
CTR from cold lists, which ranges from 0.05% to 3%.
Another source for meaningful future research on the Even though CTR has been declining for years due
combination of the isolation effect and on-demand to the overwhelming amount of available ads, which
presentations might be the aim to observe whether have created a numbing effect, marketing a message
isolated slides act as organizing tools. Several for a research study should attempt a 3% CTR. This
researchers noted that in a free-recall situation, means that improvements can be made should future
participants tended to report items in an organized researchers advertise their studies online to cold lists.
fashion. This may be due to the fact that the isolated For example, bigger ads for the study, ads placed near
items serve as anchor points and help to establish order the content for an email blast, or ads placed between
in the list, particularly since no formal organization of the title of a post and the content of the post, and blue
the information is provided and participants may links for the research, seem to work best in attracting
use the isolates to deliberately attempt to organize viewers. Segmentation of the audience based on
information. specific demographics can also increase the CTR for
any advertised research study.
Any future research would have to find volunteers,
and a brief note must be made on reaching a high Twitter could be a useful tool in promoting research
population for a research study. 1,540 people had participation. A dominant site for social media, Twitter is
to be recruited for this study (60 people during the currently used by corporations, government agencies,
Calibration phase, and 1,480 during the Benchmark and celebrities to inform, educate, or advertise. For
and Four Experiment phases). The author had access the current study, Twitter provided an opportunity to
to a professional database with approximately 12,000 inform the community about the current study and
participants, who opted to be part of this database as invite the author’s followers to participate. The degree
a result of attending workshops or webinars provided to which people re-tweet a study or react to it can
by the author in the past five years. Consequently, this speak to the value of the research and motivate others
was not a “cold list,” but rather a list with business to participate.

[ THE
CONCLUSION [
The research here shed some light on issues related
to the isolation effect and creating memorable on-
demand presentations. The study findings have
implications for corporate content creators as well as
for virtual professors. It has been noted repeatedly
that the brain is bound to make mistakes by forgetting
or misremembering things. This issue is exacerbated
by content designers’ tendency to place a premium
on distributing information quickly and widely, which
often breeds superficiality. Society has switched from
intensive to extensive presentations, often valuing
quantity over quality, almost implanting forgetfulness
into people’s souls. Viewers are asked to read, read,
read, and designers are wondering why they forget,
forget, forget. This mindset can be adjusted.
When skillfully used, PowerPoint and the memory
theories presented here can help create on-demand
presentations that provide the structure, simplicity, and
visual sophistication necessary for proper recall. If one
can influence the specifics of what people remember,
what will that mean to the future of your business?

The Anti-Presentation Company
415-606-5406
info@reximedia.com
www.reximedia.com

A big thank you to all our loyal and committed customers, partners, and friends
who believed in the potential of this research and in the power of science.


YOU’RE
INVITED
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how to apply the surprising findings from
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