How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation for Your Study

The Ultimate Guide

Inception

I would like everyone to notice one thing:

You are watching a PowerPoint presentation

about how to make PowerPoint

presentations.

All joking aside, a PowerPoint presentation is pretty easy to put together if you follow a basic outline:

– Introduction (right now)– Introduction – Methods – Results – Discussion

Introduction

A good PowerPoint introduction has good background information, but doesn’t scare people away.

Look at how nasty this looks…

IntroductionResearch has demonstrated that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have marked delays in interpreting emotional states from others’ faces (Galton & Baron-Cohen, 2007; Hobson, 1986). In addition, visual scanpaths of the eyes in participants with ASD demonstrated that these individuals spent less time looking around the eye region and more time looking around the mouth region of faces than any other group (Yu, Masamoto & Young, 2008). These findings suggest that individuals with ASD may have difficulty interpreting the emotional states in others due to atypical visual processing systems in the brain compared to normally developing individuals (Castelli, et al, 2005; Rogers, et al, 2000).

Introduction

• Don’t write your entire paper on the PowerPoint presentation.

• Make bullet points

• Here’s what I was trying to say, but shorter and more to the point…

• Individuals with Autism have difficulty recognizing emotion in faces (Galton & Baron-Cohen, 2007;

Hobson, 1986).

• Participants with Autism spend more time looking at the mouth and less time looking at the eyes

• This is different from other groups (Yu, Masamoto & Young, 2008).

• Other researchers hypothesize that Autistic individuals may have different brain processes for viewing faces (Castelli, et al, 2005; Rogers, et al, 2000).

Introduction

• That looked much more organized.

• Space is important. If there is too much cluttering up the screen, you need to cut your information down

• Too much on the screen RUINS a PowerPoint Presentation

Introduction

Some tips:

1. Include the citations of any articles you used to write your literature review or introduction in your PowerPoint

Ex: Research has shown dogs

are much more intelligent

than cats (Doge, 1994).

Introduction

2. Try to only include literature or past research that supports the main idea of your study

Ex: Your study hypothesis is that children perform worse on reading comprehension tests under time pressure than in a relaxed environment.

• GOOD: Talk about past research on:– child learning theory– stress/test taking– reading comprehension

BAD: Rambling about: – how much timed tests suck– a personal story about your life– how the education system needs to be

changed

Focus on past research that is relevant to your current research

Introduction

3. Don’t use up more than a few slides

– Most people will believe your citations and understand what you are studying after a few slides

– You do not have to provide every shred of evidence you have

– Less is more! Move on!

Introduction

Finally, end by stating your purpose…

State what you’re trying to do

Ex: The research study was conducted to examine how children perform on

reading comprehension tests in various environments.

Introduction

• …and your hypothesis.

Make a clear prediction

Ex: It was hypothesized that children will score better on reading

comprehension tests in a relaxed environment compared to a stressful environment.

Method

Your method section has three parts:

1. Participants (who was in your study)

2. Materials (what was used in your study)

3. Procedure (how did you run your study)

These should be as detailed as possible

Participants

Describe the population you sampled

– # of people (N = 24)

– who are they (CSUN students, children, etc.)

– Gender (75% Males, 25% females)

– Ethnicities (20% African American, 20% Latino/a, etc.)

– Average Age (M = 19.35 years, SD = 1.12)

MaterialsWhat was used in your study?

Describe the materials:

- Tell me what your questionnaires, photos, video, etc. looked like

- What was included in these materials? Describe the test structure, questions, images, etc.

A cooking recipe lists ingredients:

- Eggs, flour, milk…

- You don’t know what to do with them yet, but you need to know what materials you need before you start cooking

- Don’t describe how they were used yet

Materials

• Consider showing some of the questions, images, tests you used in the Power Point slide.

• For example, if you used the STROOP test, consider giving a short demonstration of the STROOP effect

Materials

Please identify the color of the letters shown

BROWNYELLOWGREENBLUE

If you used an established scale, cite the article or source it comes from:

Autism Spectrum QuotientPlease rate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements about yourself:

I prefer to do things with others rather than on my own.□ Definitely agree □ Slightly agree □ Slightly disagree □ Definitely disagree

Baron-Cohen, 2001

Procedure

How to do your study from start to finish:

Pretend that you are going to give your friend (who has never done a research study before) directions to do your study…

Would they be able to recreate it?

Procedure (Example)

First, participants were randomly assigned to two groups: the control group and the experimental group.

Participants in each group completed the study materials separate from the other group.

Participants in the experimental group were instructed to verbally count backwards from 10 to 1

Participants in the control group received nothing.

All participants were seated at a computer with a black screen at the beginning of the study session.

Then the researchers verbally read the directions for the test to the participant.

Following directions, The researchers began the program.

While the participant completed the test, the researchers recorded the time the participant took for each question with a stopwatch.

Finally, when the participant had completed the program the researchers thanked the participants and debriefed them before they left.

Procedure

Be willing to explain the exact process you used so that others get a good picture of exactly what you did!

Results

• Summarize the data collected and the statistical analyses

• Mention all relevant results, whether they support you hypothesis or not

• DO NOT discuss what these results mean JUST REPORT SPSS

• DON’T SHOW ALL OF YOUR DATA JUST REPORT SPSS

Results

For example, if you ran a t-test:

• An independent t-test was conducted to examine any differences in hair length between males and females.

• Female hair length (M = 25.0, SD = 9.35) was significantly longer than male hair length (M = 3.667, SD = 2.71), t (22) = -7.591, p < 0.001.”

Results

This tells you whether or not there was a difference between groups. It is also your p-value.This is your degrees of freedom. This is included with your results.

Female hair length (M = 25.0, SD = 9.35) was significantly longer than male hair length (M = 3.667, SD = 2.71) different between the groups, t (22) = -7.591, p < 0.001.”

This is your t-value. It should be reported as well.

Results

Female hair length (M = 25.0, SD = 9.35) was significantly longer than male hair length (M = 3.667, SD = 2.71) different between the groups, t (22) = -7.591, p < 0.001.”

Means and Standard Deviations are taken from this table. They also must be reported if you find significant differences.

Results

Make sure to use proper APA format when reporting statistics:

• M = 7.90 mean• SD = 1.30 standard deviation• p < 0.05 probability of a type 1 error• r = 0.58 correlation coefficient• F(df,df) = 4.75 report an F-test• t (df) = 2.31 report a t-test

Discussion

• The purposes of a discussion section is to evaluate and interpret the findings of the current study with respect to the original hypotheses,

• Clarify and confirm the results by comparing them to previous research findings

• Note any theoretical implications of the findings

Overall

Some Overall Tips:• Don’t read your slides word for word (it’s

boring to watch/listen to)

• Try using some animations

• SAVE your work. These are large files…make sure to back them up on a thumb drive or online.

General Formatting

• Try to make sure each slide has a title

• You will use these in PowerPoint the most:– Insert– Format– Tools– Slide Show

• Choose a variety of different backgrounds

GOOD LUCK!