Do you hate doing things you aren’t good at? I sure do. And for me it’s cooking. I hate cooking. Always have. Always will. It just doesn’t come easily to me. I have trouble with the time management. I don’t know cooking terminology well. And I worry about letting everyone down if i burn the food or it ends up being just plain awful.
I know some people have these same feelings when it comes to public speaking. We generally have positive feelings towards things that are easy to understand and negative feelings towards things that are difficult. This is called cognitive ease. As presenters, we can use this theory of cognitive ease to our benefit. Here’s how.
Repetition & Familiarity
There’s a common strategy presenters use, and you’ve probably heard of it. It’s along the lines of this: tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it, and then remind them of what you’ve said. There’s a reason this age-old advice is still used often today. It speaks to the importance of repetition. And repetition is more powerful than we might think. Scientists have dubbed this the illusory truth effect. This concept has been proven by research to show that “repeated statements are easier to process, and are subsequently perceived to be more truthful, than new statements.” That means, when we hear something a second or a third time, it feels familiar and, therefore, true. It gives us cognitive ease.
In addition to repeating the most important information, look for ways to connect your message to what the listeners already know. This appeals to their need for familiarity. To our brains, familiar usually equates with “good.” If we’ve encountered something before, we know what to expect and how to process it, which is attractive to us. When we use repetition and familiarity, we lay a foundation that helps the audience to both process and accept our message. And of course, when doing so, we need to proceed carefully and ethically.
Simplicity
Another important part of cognitive ease is simplicity. If we pack our presentations with difficult information, jargon, and complicated statistics, we aren’t doing ourselves or our audience members any favors. The marketing experts at Convertize say, “The cognitive ease associated with something will alter how we feel about it and whether we are motivated to invest our time and effort in it.” So if your presentation is hard to follow or difficult to understand, there’s a good chance your audience members will decide its not worth the effort to listen or engage.
Writer for Learning Mind, Janey Davis, gives this example. “If I give you two options, Option A is very simple to understand and Option B is extremely difficult, then I ask you to choose which option you prefer, statistically, you are more likely to say Option A. This is because you find option A easier to understand and we like things we understand [because] they take less mental strain.” So whenever possible, make your language and your graphics and your options simple for your audience to understand. By reducing their cognitive strain, you open the path for them to listen and learn and choose.
Come back on Wednesday when we’ll be sharing some specific tips about cognitive ease for designers. We’ll see how small changes in our designs can reduce the amount of effort it takes our audience to process our visuals.
In the meantime, check out our full line of presentation design and training resources at Ethos3. Or get in touch with one of our experts now.
