This document contains notes from a presentation on communication skills. It discusses topics like getting and maintaining audience attention, strategies for effective presentations, challenges of communication like information overload and the curse of knowledge, and tips for preparing a presentation like understanding your audience and defining your purpose and key message. The notes provide guidance on how to structure a presentation and engage an audience through techniques like chunking information, relating content to the audience, and using multimodal delivery.

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

2. § Remember You’re Awesome,
A superstar!
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3. Entry Points
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4. 04/02/15 4Cormac McGrath
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

5. Quick summary
What?
Why?Who?
How
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6. How would you target these
audiences with your project?
§ Basic researchers
§ Clinicians
§ Patient organisations
Adapt your message to the audience
(discuss two and two, 5 minutes)
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7. Take my laundry time again and I will burn your clothes
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8. § Part one
§ Communication,
perception and
learning
§ Part two
§ Presentation technique
§ To communicate a message
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9. 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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10. Communication:
What has changed from 350 BC to 2011?
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11. Classical ways to convince an audience
§ Ethos
§ Logos
§ Pathos
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12. Different communicative contexts
• Scientific contexts
– Conferences
– Seminars
– Thesis defence
• Popular scientific contexts
– Media
– Funding organisations
– Society and patient organisations
– Practitioners
§ Not to mention the laundry
§ Take my laundry time again and I will
burn your clothes
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13. 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/
13

14. Lecturing and attention
“Some people talk in their sleep.
Lecturers talk while other people
sleep”
Albert Camus
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15. Attention curve (Bligh 1971)
Start End20-30 min
Where to introduce extra
emphasis?Level of
attention
Lecture
time
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16. 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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17. 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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18. 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?
Ø Use both images and speech in conjunction and
coherence
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19. 04/02/15 19Cormac McGrath
So far
• Good communication takes place when the presenter’sintended
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

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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

21. Part two!
§ People are lazy!
§ Never underestimate the ignorance of your audience!
§ People create meaning out of nothing!
§ The availability Heuristic: the bat and the ball!
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22. Non-verbal communication, signals
§ Body language
§ Gestures
§ Appearance
§ Requires less cognitive resources to process
§ Can be practiced, but difficult to perform
deliberately when presenting
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23. Chunking enhances memory of information
§ 52483612 § 524 836 12 vs. 5
2 4 8 3 6 1 2
§ 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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24. Interpretation – search for meaning
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25. 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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26. 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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27. 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
§ Help your audience to sort out impressions to get the core of your message
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28. Paris
in the
the spring
Are you familiar with the saying:
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29. How do we focus our audience’s attention?
Selective Attention Awareness
(Simon & Chabris, 1999)
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30. Set the context for interpretation
§ Our expectations or model of the world determines what we see
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31. 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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32. 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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33. 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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34. Summary
§ What is the most important things you picked up so
far?
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35. 04/02/15 35Cormac McGrath
Elevator Pitch
Key Points
• Identify your goal.
• Explain what you do.
• Communicate your USP.
• Engage with a question.
• Put it all together.
• Practice.
Try to keep a business card or other take-away item with you, which
helps the other person remember you and your message. And cut out
any information that doesn't absolutely need to be there.

36. Part three:
Communication and learning
Creating meaning
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37. 04/02/15 Cormac McGrath
Supports memory and learning
§ Meaningsfulness
§ Organisation/structure
§ Practice/execution
§ Repetition
§ Feedback
Ref: Bligh ur Bolander, Good Practice in Lecturing
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Obstructs memory
§ Being passive, inactive
§ Too much information
§ Irrelevance
§ Too fast too furious
Ref: Bligh ur Bolander, Good Practice in Lecturing
38

39. Preparation
Preparation– what will I talk about –
gather and filter material
§ To whom will I speak?
§ What will I speak about?
§ Why?
§ Where?
§ When?
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Who?
What? Why?
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40. 04/02/15
Cormac McGrath
Model for planning your speech
Who?
What?Why?
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41. 04/02/15 Cormac McGrath
Target group- Who?
§ Age? Gender?
§ Occupation?
§ Knowledge?
§ Experience?
§ Expectations?
§ Cultural context?
§ Number?
§ Needs?
§ Interest?
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What?
§ Context?
§ Time?
§ Content?
§ How much information?
§ What level?
§ Language (specialist-
general)?
§ Take home message?
§ Media?
Take home message
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43. 04/02/15 Cormac McGrath
How to plan my presentation?
1. Jot down some questions
2. First things first; what is most interesting
1. You
2. Target group
3. Make sure you answer your questions
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44. 04/02/15 Cormac McGrath
Main message
A new filter for measuring air pollution has shown high reliability
Target group: Engineers
Storgatan will be closed for traffic after 15.00 on Friday
Target group: Shop owners
Air pollution in the central areas of Stockholm is a serious health concern
Target Group: Politicans
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§ Introduce?
§ Inform?
§ Inspire?
§ Convince?
Why?
§ To learn?
§ Remember?
§ Understand?
§ Be inspired?
You Them
Purpose
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46. Execution
§ Body language, eye-contact, voice
§ Variation during the presentation
§ Time & Attitude
§ Script, introduction and conclusion
§ Questions & flexibility
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47. In summary
§ Preparation (who, what, why, how)
§ Structure
§ Practice with an audience
§ Start or finish with main message -
”Take home message”
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48. Modes of persuasion
§ Ethos:
§ Credibility
§ Logos:
§ Logical arguments, reasoning
§ Pathos:
§ Emotional aspects
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49. Consider your presentation
§ Ethos: who are you? What has
been done in the field previously?
§ Logos: How do you present a
coherent argument from what you
have said?
§ Pathos: What is the human aspect
of your presentation? Why should
I care?
§ Ethos
§ Pathos
§ Logos
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50. § Ethos: It can be used to gain credibility: "The 1990 consensus reports that fifty
percent of all marriages will end in divorce.”
§ Pathos: Awakens a sense of involvement "Turn and look at the person sitting
next to you. One of the two of you will get a divorce.”
§ Logos: Present the hard facts "Because one out of every two marriages here in
the United States ends in divorce, it is imperative we reform the court system to
have a more fair resolve in settlements for both women and men."
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51. § And they can be blended together:
§ "The 1990 census report has found that 50% of all marriages end in divorce.
That means that one out of every two marriages are not successful. It could be
yours; it could be the person's sitting next to you. And if you are a woman, your
chances of a fair settlement are far lower than if you are a man. We must reform
our court system."
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52. Critical analysis
§ How would you introduce your topic? Catch people’s attention?
§ How would you change/tweak the presentation to different audiences?
§ What does grandma need to know?
§ How would you pitch the idea to the HR manager at a local firm?
§ Why should KI fund your research?
§ Considering Ethos/Pathos/Logos, how would you adapt the presentation to
incorporate those aspects of public speaking?
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53. Wrapping things up
§ Make sure what you want to say
§ Plan it carefully!
§ Lighten up on the details!
§ Focus on a clear Take home message
§ Adopts different modes of persuasion
§ Ethocs
§ Logos
§ Pathos
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54. 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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