Neuroscience should be applied to PowerPoint presentations to make them more effective. Create and design your slides with your audience in mind: not just in terms of content, but also how you display information on the slide, and the presentation as a whole. Plenty of multimedia learning presentation tips in these 3 brain rules.

1. Put neuroscience in
your presentations
Brain rule:
# of 3

2. Brain rule #1 =
Respect the limits
of working
memory

3. Content needs to be processed by
working memory in order to be stored
“Learning” occurs when info is
transferred from working memory
into long-term memory (stored).
Sensory
memory:
All impressions
of sights and
sounds happen
here.
Long-term
memory:
Where info is
stored for future
retrieval.
We want our
content here!
Working
memory:
Where information is
processed for
storage into long-
term memory.

4. The aim of every presentation
is to be remembered…
But, working memory
has volume limitations.
So we can’t present tons of new info
and expect audiences to remember it all.
Super fit working memories
can handle 7 new things!
The standard is 5, but the
safest for all is just 3 things.

5. The following
3 principles will make
your slides more:
working
memory
friendly

6. Declutter your slides!
REMOVE all objects, pictures,
animation, lines and effects that do
not contribute to your message.
Learning improves when multimedia
is free from extraneous info.
1. Coherence principle

7. e.g. pies with legends take longer to
understand than pies with labels.
Learning improves when words are
placed near relevant pictures.
2. Spatial contiguity
principle
VS
Tea Café Toast Bun
Tea
Café
Toast
Bun

8. By narrating on-screen text, you are rendering
either yourself or the text redundant.
Do you really want to be the redundant
part of your presentation?
Learning reduces when
information is redundant.
3. Redundancy
principle

9. A logo can be visually redundant.
It takes up space and is ultimately ignored
when on every slide.
If it’s ignored – why clutter your slides?
If it’s not ignored – then it’s distracting!
Either way, for good communication:
you likely don’t need a logo on all slides.
3. Redundancy
principle

10. End of Part 1
If you want presentations
that really work, you have
to change the way you
create them.
hello@presented.co.uk

11. Put neuroscience in
your presentations
Brain rule:
# of 3

12. Brain rule #2 =
Address the
visual & verbal
channels

13. It’s wrongly assumed
we process TEXT with the
visual channel, since we
read with our eyes.
When we process slide content,
we use two brain channels:
The visual channel (eyes)
& the verbal channel (ears)
In fact, TEXT is processed
by the verbal channel as we
listen to ourselves read.

14. For best results use the
visual and verbal
channels in sync
Overloaded verbal
channel and underused
visual channel
Here’s what happens:
 ✓
Text heavy slide
An overloaded verbal channel and
underused visual channel often occurs
when a text heavy slide is presented
with narration
Visual slide
Images
Narration
Text
Narration
✓
Images
Narration

15. So…
If you read your slides out
loud, you are overloading
a brain channel & failing
your audience.

16. 10%
35%
65%
This is not going to be a newsflash:
our brains learn better
with visuals.
People have 6x better recall
when verbal and visual
channels are used
in harmony!
www.rufwork.com/110/mats/oshaVisualAids.html
Listening only
Visual only
Visual and listening

17. 1. Multimedia Learning, Second Edition; Richard E. Mayer
Audiences retain far more info
from narration & images
vs text based slides.1
Text based
Narration & images
7%
87%

18. Just remember, the images need to
be the right ones!
Whilst photos can look
amazing, there’s a chance
your audience will recall
subjective feelings &
thoughts from that photo,
instead of your message!
Poorly targeted or decorative
images are too common and are
bad for brains!
?
Photos

19. End of Part 2
Presentations look so similar,
because many presenters copy
what everyone else does.
It doesn’t have to be
this way!
hello@presented.co.uk

20. Put neuroscience in
your presentations
Brain rule:
# of 3

21. Brain rule #3 =
Guide your
audience’s
attention

22. We know it’s important to grab
audience attention early on, but we
also need to hold it.
Humans are active learners.
Brains don’t stop: we are
constantly trying to comprehend
new info, sort it, fight distractions
and integrate it alongside existing
knowledge. It’s tiring.

23. The following
3 principles will help:
guide
audience
attention

24. Use things like: graphical patterns, recognised
sequences, familiar structures or concepts.
Mnemonics are popular, and can work…
But don’t overuse them, it can overload the
brain into a “recall” cycle… and the actual
learning gets lost.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Accurate?
R ? Timely?
1. Tap into prior
knowledge

25. Simple devices like arrows
can direct attention.
Or use colour coding
for key points or sections.
Learning improves when attention
is focused on key information.
2. Signalling principle
Opt for clear navigation visuals,
so the audience knows where they
are... and where they are going!

26. Headlines themselves are
excellent signals.
Structure your presentation
to improve guidance.
Use chapters to chunk info,
with 1 key message for each chapter.
Always state a call to action:
make the goal of your presentation clear
2. Signalling principle

27. Time the entrance of content to
minimise cognitive load.
3. Temporal contiguity
principle
Make sure your narration
and your content is in sync.
Use animation to prevent your audience
from reading ahead.
(even though you’ve reduced text right?)

28. Animation attracts attention: fab.
But don’t let it distract from your message.
Overdone animation can quickly lead to cognitive
overload, so use carefully!
And don’t make your audience wait for
long animations to finish:
your PPT skills are not the purpose.
Animate only for a purpose.
3. Temporal contiguity
principle

29. End of Part 3
Most people present in a
way that goes against good
brain science.
Too many presentations
end up as wasted
opportunities.
hello@presented.co.uk