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PowerPoint in consideration of
Working Memory
ChinaLinks Educational Consultants LLC
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Working Memory:
Definition
Working Memory is the ability to maintain and manipulate
information over short periods of time necessary to guide
behavior
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Working Memory:
Example
4371506 -----> 4371506
Maintain
4371506 -----> 6051734
Maintain & Manipulate
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Working Memory:
Capacity
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Limited
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c.f. Miller’s magical number seven (chunks)
: short term memory
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Category of chunks
digits vs. letters vs. words (long vs. short)
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Working Memory:
Models
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Baddeley and Hitch model
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Cowan
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Ericsson and Kintsch
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Working memory:
Baddeley and Hitch model
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Phonological Loop
(Articulatory loop)
Central Executive
Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad
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Closely related to
visual imagery
Used to encode nonverbal
visual and spatial information.
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Attentional control
: Making changes to
practiced routine.
(e.g., Altering driving
to work routine
when there is
a traffic accident)
Dividing attention
: Multitasking
Switching attention
from one task to another
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Inner ear
(phonological store)
Inner voice
(articulatory process)
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Working memory:
Current model
Central Executive
Phonological Loop
Language
Episodic buffer
Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
Short-term episodic memory
Visual semantics
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Bad PowerPoint Slides
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Characteristics students don’t like about professors’
PowerPoint slides
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Too many words on a slide
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Clip art
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Movement (slide transitions or word animations)
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Templates with too many colors
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Good PowerPoint Slides
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Characteristics students like about professors’
PowerPoint slides
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Graphs increase understanding of content
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Bulleted lists help them organize ideas
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PowerPoint can help to structure lectures
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Verbal explanations of pictures/graphs help more than written
clarifications
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Student Learning
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Students learn more when
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material is presented in short phrases rather than full paragraphs
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the professor talks about the information on the slide rather than
having students read it on their own
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relevant pictures are used. Irrelevant pictures decrease learning
compared to PowerPoint slides with no picture
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they take notes (if the professor is not talking). But if the professor
is lecturing, note-taking and listening decreased learning
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they are given the PowerPoint slides before the class
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Working Memory with PowerPoint
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How to leverage the working memory with PowerPoint?
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by dividing the information between the visual and auditory
modality.
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Minimize the opportunity for distraction by removing any
irrelevant material
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Use simple cues to direct learners to important points or content.
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Keep information displayed in short chunks that are easily read
and comprehended
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Resources for better PowerPoint
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What is good PowerPoint design?
http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_good_powe.html
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Think Outside the Slide
http://www.youtube.com/user/ThinkOutsideTheSlide
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KWICK
http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/VSR_Chapter2.pdf
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Improving PowerPoint-style Presentations
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/improving-powerpoint-stylepresentations/32126?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en