The Effect of Cognitive and Perceptual Load on Attention in PowerPoint Presentations

Abstract

Lecturers have converted to the PowerPoint presentation format for educating students, yet in the rush towards ease of use and popularity, thoughtful construction of lesson materials has suffered. By bouncing between under-formed bullet-points and walls of text, educators have lost students’ attention. The present studies investigated the effect manipulation of cognitive and perceptual loading of PowerPoint slides would have on attention, measured indirectly through memory recall performance. Participants experienced a presentation made up of one of two levels each of cognitive load, perceptual load, and topic. Following the presentation participants were given a memory recall test based on the information they had just viewed. Participant’s daily distractibility, lecture attendance, cognitive effort expended, and learning preferences were measured to assess what impact these additional factors would have on academic performance. The findings illustrate that a low cognitive and a high perceptual loading of educational slideware will increase student preference and test score for questions that require complex transfer of information to novel scenarios. Age, and lecture attendance were found to have a negative impact on test score: the older and more cognitively depleted participants underperformed compared against younger participants that had attended minimal lectures the day of testing. By streamlining content and integrating smart, graphical explanations to course material, it is hoped that educators can increase their PowerPoint efficacy and thus provide interesting and improved learning environments.