1. Running Head:Presentation style and level of retention 1
Presentation style and level of information retention in training- An empirical study
Cameron Mitton
Experiencing Research 485
Brigham Young University-Idaho

2. Presentation style and level of retention 2
For a long time, lectures and trainings were conducted with a chalkboard or a whiteboard.
Today, technology has been fully submerged into businesses and educational domains and is
becoming a “necessity” for presentation (Thomas, 2002). Microsoft PowerPoint software is
starting to be a customary method for trainings and presentations (Gupta, 2011; Kraus, R. 2008;
Schrad, 2010). Microsoft estimated that over 30 million presentations happen in one day and that
PowerPoint itself is on 250 million computers around the world (Amare, 2006). Despite this
current frequency of use and statistics, the question is still continuing to be asked. Is PowerPoint
or the blackboard the best method for yielding higher information retention rates in presentation?
Teachers, leaders in businesses, and other expanses of public instruction have been concerned
with determining the most effective way to present new ideas to an audience that will produce
the maximum amount of positive retention results with that audience (Jacobson 2001, Masi &
Cook, 2000).
Regardless of the prevalent acceptance of PowerPoint, many researchers have entertained
the idea that its didactic use actually has the potential to decrease student engagement (Craig &
Amernic, 2006; Klemm, 2007; Schrad, 2010). They claim that because of the illuminated screen,
PowerPoint becomes more of a movie like setting which leads to unfocused attention of the
learner. In addition to those findings, Sunita & Mukundraj (2014) found that the students who
attended class with the chalkboard as the presentation aid received a higher score on the MCQ
test than those who attended the lecture using a PowerPoint, and that 67.5% of the student-
participants recorded preferring chalkboard lectures over PowerPoint. Craig and Amernic
conclude that one of the prominent didactic problems with PowerPoint presentations is that
learners are passively involved in the process of learning the information.

3. Presentation style and level of retention 3
Some research suggests that within the appropriate bounds, PowerPoint can be the most
effective method for participant retention. Valdez (2013) concluded that PowerPoints embedded
with questions, were much more likely to produce higher retention rates. Another study that was
conducted focused on the effectiveness of multimedia presentations and teaching foreign
language vocabulary. The group that was taught using the multimedia presentation had more
positive results than the control group (Yavuz, 2007). Hove and Corcoran (2008) discovered that
students performed better using a PowerPoint lecture compared to a traditional lecture style, such
as the Blackboard.
Regarding information retention, most of the research conducted has been recorded over
a longer period of time. This is where I find uniqueness in my study. I am interested in
determining the immediate retention effects of the presentation style as opposed to looking at
more long term effects. My reasoning behind this is accounting for the external factors that
accompany prolonged studies. One issue to take into consideration is accounting for the learners
studying outside of the educators training session. Their individual results might not accurately
reflect which presentation style is best because of their extra efforts outside of the training to
learn the material. Concerning vocation, (Lee & Singer, 2012) found that doing a follow up on
training provided information that proved to produce greater results regarding work productivity
and instructional comprehension. Schneider, Healy, Barshi, Kole (2011) found that when
teaching someone to follow instructions, initially, the retention was much higher with those that
were given the special form of training (person centered) as opposed to the verbal. However,
after conducting a follow up on the retention of the trainees they found that retention was only
perfect when the training and test conditions had matched up correctly. This research suggests
that gathering data after a certain period of time might produce false or different data because of

4. Presentation style and level of retention 4
the learning that occurs in between the presentation and the data collection that is typically
unaccounted for.
Although there has been research directed towards more long term results of information
retention, there is little research regarding immediate retention following a presentation. I am
interested in finding out if using a PowerPoint presentation or the traditional method of the
chalkboard is more effective in the immediate retention of the audience. I believe that
understanding which method produces higher immediate retention results might serve as a more
accurate predictor of the proper method one should use to bring about an increase in long term
information retention. I hypothesize that the retention will be greater for those who are presented
to with a PowerPoint presentation. To explore this question and my hypothesis, I will try to
reduce the study to its simplest form. I will be having two groups assigned, to which one will be
taught using a PowerPoint and one with a Chalkboard. The participants will be quizzed on their
level of information retention following each of the presentations.
This study could serve as useful information for instructors of all types including:
teachers, business owners, managers and other people that are involved in training large groups
of people simultaneously. All of these educators are concerned with the issue of getting the
information being taught to penetrate the mind of the learner and to stay there permanently. It
seems clear that this study will serve as another key for unlocking deeper information on training
and learning. Thanks to this research, educators will know of a more effective method for getting
better retention out of their employees, students, and other trainees.
Method
Participants

5. Presentation style and level of retention 5
Participants will consist of students from Brigham Young University- Idaho, this
population consists mostly of white males and females ranging from ages 18 to 28 on average. I
will take 40 students from a general Psychology class will be randomly selected to conduct the
study. In as much as this is a general Psychology class, most students will come from very
different educational backgrounds. This will help to give an accurate representation of all
students at Brigham Young University-Idaho. I anticipate that there will be some declared
Psychology major students, but not an outsized enough amount to induce sampling bias.
The study will be centered on the subject of leadership training and retention. The
training will be conducted by way of presentation. Using this specific concept of leadership
training as a presentation topic will also improve the internal validity of the study because it will
be rare for the students to have studied the particular topic that they be will receiving instruction
on in the experiment. Most students will have no or little experience regarding leadership
effectiveness, which should promote an increase in concentration and active listening during the
training. Students with disabilities such as deafness and blindness, or any other possible learning
disabilities will be excluded from the study.
Participants will be selected from each class on a first come first serve basis for an option
to receive class credit, or extra credit (as offered by the professor) for the class. Students will be
allowed to participate if they don’t have the disabilities listed above, if they comply with the
scheduled meeting time, and if they fill out the quiz provided following the training. To insure
that we get (the sample size needed) or more participants for our sample size, the students will
receive the class credit, or extra credit only after the study is completed in its entirety. This
should also help to reduce attrition from the participants.
Measures

6. Presentation style and level of retention 6
A questionnaire will be administered to the volunteer students in each class following the
study. Each questionnaire will consist of items regarding leadership training information that
they will have received during the presentation. The presenter will be a theater major volunteer
student that I will be paying to help with the trainings. The presenter will be trained exactly how
to present the information using both PowerPoint and the Black/White board. The presenter will
also be instructed to keep the same character including: voice tone, dress, hand movements,
questions etc., for both presentations. The independent variable is the presentation aid that is
used to train the participants about leadership. The dependent variable is the level of individual
student information retention, which will be measured using a test following each presentation.
This test will be conducted modeling the experimental between subjects research design.
Materials
A research randomizer will be used to randomize the groups for the PowerPoint
presentations and SPSS to assess the scores of the quizzes following the presentations. The
material for the leadership presentation will be created by myself as well as the questions that
will be given to the participants.
Procedures
During the semester a teacher for a general Psychology class will announce an
opportunity to receive credit or some extra credit work for the course. The requirement to earn
the extra credit will be to participate in the study. The participants will receive an email
notification informing them when and where they are to go for the study. Inasmuch as I will be
using only one presenter for both groups, each group will have to report at a different time. The
students will be unaware that they will have been assigned to a particular group. The participants

7. Presentation style and level of retention 7
upon arrival, will be randomly assigned to a seat in the classroom. One group will be instructed
on leadership training with the aid of a blackboard or whiteboard and one group will be
instructed with a PowerPoint presentation. Each group will be trained for a fixed amount of time
of 30 minutes and will have 20 minutes to take a 15 question quiz immediately afterward. The
quiz will be a pen and paper multiple-choice quiz that is to be completed at the location of the
study. The participants will be unaware of the quiz following the presentation so as to avoid
students engaging in a heavier level of focus on the presentation, which could potentially
produce false results. The questions for the quiz will be fairly difficult in their assessment of
detail to insure that the students will answer some questions incorrectly and to make sure that
additional focus will be required to succeed. The students will submit the quiz and wait for the
results from the instructor. The final questions of the quiz will assess how they felt during the
quiz, and how well they felt they remembered the material covered, and their opinion concerning
the difficulty of the quiz. After all of the participants have completed the quiz the groups will be
informed on intent of the study and will be able to have any questions explained in more detail.

8. Presentation style and level of retention 8
References
Amare, N. (2006) To Slideware or not to Slideware: Students‟ Experiences with PowerPoint vs.
Lecture, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 36(3), pp. 297-308
Craig, R. & Amernic, J. (2006). PowerPoint Presentation Technology and the Dynamics of
Teaching. Innovative Higher Education, 31(3), 147-160. doi:10.1007/s10755-006- 9017-
5
Gupta, R. (2011). Faculty Perceptions and Use of PowerPoint. Language in India, 11(12), pp.
442-453
Hove, M. C., & Corcoran, K. J. (2008). Educational technologies: Impact on learning and
frustration. Teaching of Psychology, 35, 121–125
Jacobson, S. (2011) Leadership effects on student achievement and sustained school success, the
International Journal of Educational Management, 25(1), pp. 33-44
Klemm, W. R. (2007). Computer Slide Shows: A Trap For Bad Teaching. College Teaching,
55(3), 121-124
Kraus, R. (2008). Presentation Software: Strong Medicine or Tasty Placebo? Canadian Journal
of Science, Mathematics & Technology Education, 8(1), 70-81.
doi:10.1080/14926150802152350
Lee, G., Singer, D. J. (2012) Effects of fluency versus accuracy training on endurance and
retention of assembly tasks by four adolescents with developmental disabilities, Journal
of behavioral education, 21(1), pp. 1-17. doi:10.1007/s10864-011-9142-9
Masi, R., J., Cooke, R., A. (2000) Effects of transformational leadership on subordinate
motivation, empowering norms, and organizational productivity, International Journal of
Organizational Analysis, 8(1), pp. 16-47

9. Presentation style and level of retention 9
Thomas, D. E. J. (2002) Technology Integrated Classes versus Traditional Classes and their
Impact on User Performance and Perceptions. Proceedings of the International
Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE„02)
Samur, Y. (2012) Redundancy effect on retention of vocabulary words using multimedia
presentation, British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(6), pp. 166-170
Schneider, V., I., Healy, A., F., Barshi, I., Kole, J., A. (2011) Following navigation instructions
presented verbally or spatially: Effects on training, retention and transfer, Applied
cognitive Psychology, 25(1), pp. 53-67
Schrad, M. (2010). In Defense of the Populist Lecture. PS: Political Science and Politics, 43(4),
759-765
Sunita, B. deSa & Mukundraj, S., Keny. (2014) PowerPoint versus Chalkboard Based Lectures
in Pharmacology: Evaluation of Their Impact on Medical Student’s Knowledge and Their
Preferences, International Journal of Advanced Health Sciences, 1(5), pp. 1-13
Valdez, A. (2013) Multimedia learning from PowerPoint: Use of adjunct questions, Psychology
Journal 10(1), pp. 35-44
Yavuz, A. (2007) Effects of multimedia annotations on incidental vocabulary learning and
reading comprehension of advanced learners of english as a foreign language,
Instructional Science, 35(6), pp. 499-517

10. Presentation style and level of retention 10
Informed consent form to participate in research
Introduction
Thisstudy is beingconductedbyCameronMitton todetermine how differentpresentationstylesaffect
audience members’retentionof the presentedinformation.
Procedures
The participantswill attendatrainingpresentationwill take thirtyminutestocomplete.Immediately
followingthe presentation,there will be settime of twentyminutesalludedtothe participantsto
provide informationregardingthe presentationtheyattended.
Risks/ Discomforts
There are minimal risks toyourparticipationinthisstudy. Anyparticipantthatisinvolvedintrainingof
some formmightbe interestedinknowingwhatconclusionswere drawnfromthisstudy. The treatment
or procedure mayinvolve risksthatare currentlyunforeseeable.
Benefits
The benefitsorresultsof thisresearchcouldhelpanyone whoparticipateorare actively involvedin
trainingandhas a desire tohelptheir audience rememberinformationformtheir varioustraining
sessions. Itwill provide trainerswithareliableoptionforpresentinginformationtolarge groups.Overall
there are no directbenefitsforthe participants.
Confidentiality
The individual scoresandresponsesof the studentparticipantswillkeptconfidentialtothe researcher.
In additionthere will be noreferencetoa student’sindividual identificationatanytime inthe research.
Compensation
Compensationwill be offeredintwoforms.One formisa refreshment(pizza) followingthe study.The
secondisthat your teachermayofferyouclasscredit,or extracreditfor theirparticipation.
Participation
Your participationinthisresearchstudyisvoluntary.Youhave the rightto withdraw atany time or
refuse toparticipate entirelywithoutjeopardyto yourclassstatus,grade or standingwiththe university.
Questionsabout the research
If you have questionsregardingthisstudyyoumaycontact CameronMittonat 208-339-6600, or by
email atmit13001@byui.edu
Questionsabout your Rights as ResearchParticipants
If you have questionsregardingyourrightsasa participantinresearchprojects,youmaycontact Dr.
Scott Bergstrom,Directorof InstitutionalResearch,KIM290C, BYU-Idaho,Rexburg,ID83460; phone,
(208) 496-1136; email,bergstroms@byui.edu.

11. Presentation style and level of retention 11
I have readthe informationprovidedabove.Ihave beengivenanopportunitytoaskquestions,andall
of myquestionshave beenansweredtomysatisfaction.Ihave beengivenacopyof the informed
consentform.
BY SIGNINGTHIS FORM, I WILLINGLY AGREE TO PARTICIPATEIN THE
RESEARCH IT DESCRIBES.
_________________________________________________
Name of Research Subject
_________________________________________________ ______________
Signature of Research Subject Date