Science has now discovered that our brains hate PowerPoint

PowerPoint-style presentations force multitasking in a way that our brains can’t really handle. Almost every presentation (PowerPoint or otherwise) involves the speaker speaking while displaying slides full of words. The idea is that the words that appear on the screen support what is said, thereby increasing comprehension and memory. The trouble with this, however, is that presentations reduce the comprehension and retention of information heard and seen, as the human brain functions very poorly in any multitasking situation that requires the use of the same part of our thinking organ for each task. Psychologist Marc Coutanche, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, illustrated the reason for this in Popular Mechanics. “The linguistic regions of our brain process sounds, words, and the meaning of sentences. Imagine a circuit where there are multiple inputs and multiple outputs, but they share the same wires,” he said. In other words, when our brain hears words and sees different words at the same time, there is actually a short circuit in the brain, or the brain alternates between the two vocabularies, confusing both. That’s why virtually every PowerPoint presentation is boring and forgettable, says Inc. magazine, which also made a bold statement in the headline. The brain, of course, is capable of multitasking if the handling of multitasking can rely on different parts of the body. That’s why we can drive safely while listening to the news on the radio. Many highly successful entrepreneurs, such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, have intuitively come to the conclusion that science has since suggested and are said to be reluctant to go through PowerPoint presentations – writes Inc. Fortunately, there are effective alternatives to point-to-point presentations. Here are three options suggested by the magazine’s expert, Geoffrey James. If a problem needs to be discussed and decided on, it is more helpful to use written information. This is a short document (up to 3 pages) that everyone will read at the beginning of the discussion. It is important that we do not publish this before the meeting, as almost no one will read it. Creating interactive experiences is useful for teaching and training. This means workbooks, group exercises and especially taking notes, but always with a pencil or pen and never with a computer. Taking notes on paper significantly improves memory because it consumes more parts of the brain, which is the reverse of the PowerPoint effect. Give a speech to entertain or inspire. If the group is too large to participate in the interactive exercises, a TED Talk-style presentation will work well. If there is an image that is crucial to understanding the speech, display it, but never show a list. It’s never seen in TED Talk, for example, and obviously for a reason. Hardware, software, tests, curiosities and colorful news from the world of IT by clicking here