Communicating science Intro

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The art and science of communication
Cormac McGrath
Director of Unit for Medical Education
Cormac McGrath
© Erik G Svensson

3. To communicate science
§ Orally present your research and
adjust to different audiences
§ Reflect on presentation skills and
ability to adjust to different audiences
§ Wakefield scandal (Moore, 2006)
§ The “Werther” effect
(Niederkrotenthaler et al 2006)
§ Reporting on suicide
§ Post Truth: The Trump effect
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5. Milestones during the course
§ Introduction
§ Video recorded 4-5 minute
presentation for general public
§ Literature seminar
§ Media facilitated 4-5 minute
presentation
§ Infograph presentation (with poster)
§ Individual reflective statement (with
references).
§ Now organize in groups.
§ 2 groups
§ Introduce yourselves, name,
department, one thing you would like
to share about yourself
§ Each person will introduce someone
else to the whole class. Make sure
you don’t say ehh, or mmmmmm
§ Make sure you know what you want to
say!
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Do’s and dont’s
In pairs
Think about a lecturer/presentation you have seen in action.
Present one/a few things you thought were good
Present one/a few things you thought were less good
What did s/he do?
Create two lists– do’s and dont’s
What should one do as a presenter?
What should one avoid?
List the three most important points in each

7. Quick summary
What?
Why?Who?
How
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8. How would you target these
audiences with your project?
Write down a killer opening
statement for each audience:
§ Basic researchers
§ Clinicians
§ Patient organisations
§ Your grandmother
Adapt your message to the audience
(discuss two and two, 5 minutes)
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9. §Part one
§Communication,
perception and
limitations in
understanding &
learning
§Part two/three
§Presentation
technique
§To communicate a
message
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10. Common Communication myths
§ Good communication has taken place
§ More communication is better
§ Communication ability is innate
§ To communicate a hidden problem exacerbates the problem
§ The message sent is the message received
§ Intellectual intelligence is the same as good communication
§ Communication is unidirectional
§ Learning communication theory makes you a better communicator
§ Communication solves everything
§ Effective communication is about presenting the blunt truth
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11. How do I get/compete with the audience’s thoughts?
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You need to be more interesting than the audiences’
own thoughts.
§ What am I going to make for dinner?
§ What time do I have practice this afternoon?
§ I wonder what’s bothering my boyfriend/girlfriend?
http://www.hemlin.pp.se/
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12. Attention curve (Bligh 1971)
Start End20-30 min
Where to introduce extra
emphasis?Level of
attention
Lecture
time
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13. Attention
Level of
attention
Effect of rest or change in activity on learning (Biggs, 2003 from Bligh 1971)
Start End Lecture
time
Short brake
Our sensory system adapts to the
humming of the air-conditioner
when it is consistent.
We notice the changes
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14. What hinders understanding?
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15. Information overload
§Information overload
§Too much information makes understanding
difficult
§Cognitive load (Sweller, Merrienboer 2009)
§ Our working memory is limited, overloading impairs understanding
§ Allow time to process new terminology, new concepts and complexity
§ Reduce extraneous load: make it easy for your audience to get and interpret the
message
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16. Biological limitations
of cognitive capacity
• Multi modal information encodes more information/time
and we remember the content better
• Dual coding theory. Visual and verbal channels, where
information are processed in different processes. (Paivio)
• Which sense (channel) is dominant for our perceptions?
ØUse both images and speech in conjunction and
coherence
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17. Chunking enhances memory of information
§ 524836107371213662 § 524 836 120 737 12 13 66
vs.
§ 5 2 4 8 3 6 1 2 0 7 3 7 1 2 1 3
6 6
§ G.A. Miller (1956) found the
optimal number of chunks to
be 7 when processing
information
§ ”The Magical Number Seven, Plus
or Minus Two”
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18. Esoteric jargon
§ Given that we have a limited ability to retain
information, and then what is your stance on
esoteric jargon in your subjects.
§ Let’s play jeopardy:
§ This is an unobserved exposure associated with the
exposure of interest and is a potential cause of the
outcome of interest. This lead to bias that distorts the
magnitude of the relationship between two factors of
interest.
§ Suggested by Thomas Kuhn, this is a scientific
revolution and completely changes the way in which
science looks at the world.
§ The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its
methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction
between justified belief and opinion
§ Relating to or denoting the side of the body opposite to
that on which a particular structure or condition occurs.
§ What is a confounder
§ What is a paradigm shift
§ Epistemology
§ Contralateral
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19. Neurological limitations:
What reaches the consciuos level?
§ We perceive 11 million information bits/second from our senses
§ Only 40 information bits reach the conscious level
§ The conscious experience is delayed with half a second
§ Perceptions reach Cortex after 10-20msek
§ Consciuos experience after 0.5 second
§ The report suggests the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words of
information in a single day. (Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is only 460,000 words long.) This doesn’t
mean we read 100,000 words a day — it means that 100,000 words cross our eyes and ears in a
single 24-hour period. That information comes through various channels, including the television,
radio, the Web, text messages and video games.
• (NYT. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 2009)
§ Help your audience to sort out impressions to get the core of your message
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20. Meaning making
§Biological limitations are nessesary to consider, but
not sufficient to ensure understanding and
remembering
§How do you facilitate meaning making?
§ Relate to previous experience
§ Relate to our needs
§ Who’s your audience?
§ Why should your audience care?
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21. Interpretation
We
§ Relate to previous knowledge
§ Fill in the gaps
§ Disregard information that is
perceived as redundant
We want to understand and make sense of the world!
Create meaning
This is an old house! Don’t flush tampons
down the toilet.
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I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht
I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the
hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets
in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit
and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a
taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm.
Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey
ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig,
huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was
ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

23. How do we focus our audience’s attention?
Selective Attention Awareness
(Simon & Chabris, 1999)
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24. Set the context for interpretation
§ Our expectations or model of the world determines what we see
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25. The curse of knowledge
§ Your everyday knowledge of your topic and scientific field is acquired since many
years. Eventually it becomes transparent to ourselves
§ What does it take for your audience to understand your message?
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26. Can your listener guess the song?
§ Think of a well known song
§ Tap the melody with your finger while someone is listening
§ What are the chances of a correct answer from the listener?
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27. What’s in your mind doesn’t automatically
transfer to the audience
§ Elisabeth Newton had subjects tap
out the melodies of a familiar song
with their finger and predict what
fraction of those songs will be
recognized by a listener.
§ “Tappers” estimation was that 50%
would be recognized
§ the result was 3% recognized songs.
Tappers estimation and listeners correct
guess
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
estimation outcome
percentage
Ref: L. Newton, “Overconfidence in the Communication of Intent: Heard and Unheard Melodies,”
Ph.D. dissertation, (Stanford University, 1990)
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28. Summary
§What is the most important things you picked up so
far?
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So far
• Communication, perception and limitations in understanding
& learning
• Good communication takes place when the presenter’s intended
message has been internalised by the listener
• Too much information, inhibits learning and understanding
• Too much one-way talking could be taxing for the audience
• Esoteric Jargon complicates things

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Your presentation
• What is the basic information you wish to convey?
• What is the right amount of information?
• Be specific, share with your partner!
• Critique each other

31. Make sure that you are!
§ Clear
§ Conscise
§ Concrete
§ Correct (Truthful)
§ Coherent
§ Complete
§ Courteous
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32. Resources
§ http://www.ted.com/talks
§ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/04/
§ http://rhetoric.byu.edu/
§ http://www.toastmasters.org/tips.asp
§ http://www.hemlin.pp.se/
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