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The art and science of communication

Cormac McGrath

Director of Unit for Medical Education

Cormac McGrath

© Erik G Svensson

To communicate science§ Orally present your research and

adjust to different audiences

§ Reflect on presentation skills and ability to adjust to different audiences

§ Wakefield scandal (Moore, 2006)

§ The “Werther” effect (Niederkrotenthaler et al 2006)§ Reporting on suicide

§ Post Truth: The Trump effect


Milestones during the course§ Introduction

§ Video recorded 4-5 minute presentation for general public

§ Literature seminar

§ Media facilitated 4-5 minute presentation

§ Infograph presentation (with poster)

§ Individual reflective statement (with references).

§ Now organize in groups.

§ 2 groups

§ Introduce yourselves, name, department, one thing you would like to share about yourself

§ Each person will introduce someone else to the whole class. Make sure you don’t say ehh, or mmmmmm

§ Make sure you know what you want to say!


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Do’s and dont’s

In pairsThink about a lecturer/presentation you have seen in action.

Present one/a few things you thought were goodPresent 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

Quick summary

What?

Why?Who?

How


How would you target theseaudiences with your project?Write down a killer openingstatement for each audience:

§ Basic researchers§ Clinicians§ Patient organisations§ Your grandmother

Adapt your message to the audience(discuss two and two, 5 minutes)


§Part one§Communication, perception and limitations in understanding & learning

§Part two/three§Presentation technique

§To communicate a message


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


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/

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Attention curve (Bligh 1971)

Start End20-30 min

Where to introduce extra emphasis? Level of

attention

Lecture time


Attention

Level ofattention

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


What hinders understanding?


Information overload

§Information overload§Too much information makes understandingdifficult

§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


Biological limitationsof cognitive capacity

• Multi modal information encodes more information/timeand we remember the content better

• Dual coding theory. Visual and verbal channels, whereinformation are processed in different processes. (Paivio)

• Which sense (channel) is dominant for our perceptions?

ØUse both images and speech in conjunction and coherence


Chunking enhances memory of information

§ 524836107371213662 § 524 836 120 737 12 13 66vs.

§ 5 2 4 8 3 6 1 2 0 7 3 7 1 2 1 3 6 6

§G.A. Miller (1956) found the optimal number of chunks to be 7 when processing information§ ”The Magical Number Seven, Plus

or Minus Two”


Esoteric jargon§ Given that we have a limited ability to retain

information, and then what is your stance on esoteric jargon in your subjects.

§ Let’s play jeopardy: § This is an unobserved exposure associated with the

exposure of interest and is a potential cause of the outcome of interest. This lead to bias that distorts the magnitude of the relationship between two factors of interest.

§ Suggested by Thomas Kuhn, this is a scientific revolution and completely changes the way in which science looks at the world.

§ The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion

§ Relating to or denoting the side of the body opposite to that on which a particular structure or condition occurs.

§ What is a confounder

§ What is a paradigm shift

§ Epistemology

§ Contralateral


Neurological limitations: 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

§ The report suggests the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words ofinformation in a single day. (Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is only 460,000 words long.) This doesn’tmean we read 100,000 words a day — it means that 100,000 words cross our eyes and ears in a single 24-hour period. That information comes through various channels, including the television, radio, the Web, text messages and video games.

• (NYT. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 2009)

§ Help your audience to sort out impressions to get the core of your message


Meaning making

§Biological limitations are nessesary to consider, butnot 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?


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.



I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd wahtI was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at CmabrigdeUinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lteretsin a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsitand lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed erveyltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

How do we focus our audience’s attention?

Selective Attention Awareness

(Simon & Chabris, 1999)


Set the context for interpretation

§ Our expectations or model of the world determines what we see


The curse of knowledge

§ Your everyday knowledge of your topic and scientific field is acquired since manyyears. Eventually it becomes transparent to ourselves

§ What does it take for your audience to understand your message?


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?


What’s in your mind doesn’t automaticallytransfer to the audience

§ Elisabeth Newton had subjects tapout the melodies of a familiar songwith their finger and predict whatfraction 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

perc

enta

ge

Ref: L. Newton, “Overconfidence in the Communication of Intent: Heard and Unheard Melodies,” Ph.D. dissertation, (Stanford University, 1990)


Summary

§What is the most important things you picked up so far?


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So far

• Communication, perception and limitations in understanding& learning

• Good communication takes place when the presenter’s intendedmessage has been internalised by the listener

• Too much information, inhibits learning and understanding• Too much one-way talking could be taxing for the audience• Esoteric Jargon complicates things

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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

Make sure that you are!§ Clear

§ Conscise

§ Concrete

§ Correct (Truthful)

§ Coherent

§ Complete

§ Courteous


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/
