Research points the finger at PowerPoint

This link is already a few days old, but I never got around to blogging about it until now.  It's fascinating research that suggests that when we take in the same information by reading and hearing at the same time (following along in a book, or reading PowerPoint notes) we actually lose comprehension.  Basically, our brain is doing double duty decoding the written words while decoding the spoken words, all while trying to analyze and organize the presented information.  I can totally believe it.  I have definitely noticed the challenge associated with trying to do both at once.  The research finds that visual images to reinforce spoken information aids in comprehension if it is supplemental -- images, tables, animations -- it's just that it shouldn't be presenting the same words.  Personally, I think that I may be able to absorb information better through reading alone rather than hearing alone, though hearing with good imagery might be even better.

A big part of my job is creating PowerPoint decks for presentations.  I learned to create decks as essentially outlines.  Each slide has a title and bullet points, with illustrations and animations from time to time.  It's more work to create the imagery, so the natural tendency is to use more text, but this article has made me think about things differently.  I'd like to try to write my next presentation with more visuals and less text.  Can I do it without burning too many hours?  I'm anxious to give it a try. 

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