Research Methods and Statistics

Faculty and students often deliver results of their research at professional meetings. Several opportunities to present work are available at annual national meetings (e.g., American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science). In addition to these national venues, opportunities to present your work are available at many regional or local meetings throughout the year. You may also be asked to present your research in class, on campus during a research day, or at a local undergraduate research conference in your state. Regardless of the forum, it is important to develop a plan for presenting your research in a professional way.

Researchers may present their findings during a single session (usually an hour in length), as one member of a panel, or during a poster session. Regardless of the venue, presentations should be clear, concise, and professionally delivered.

It is important to remember that presenting your work orally is different than presenting the work in writing. You should tailor your presentation to meet the needs of a live audience. Remember, people don't want to listen to dry boring facts. Instead, people want to hear interesting information that is directly relevant to their interests. So, for example, if you are presenting results that indicate that positive reinforcement can be useful in helping people to quit smoking, then highlight the broader psychological phenomenon—positive reinforcement—while at the same time keeping the presentation lively and interesting.

Keep the message simple. Your audience is not reading your paper. So, people are not able to easily reference complicated details, and if you provide too much detail, you may lose people. Try to focus on presenting two or three key points. Keep the presentation of these points short, succinct, and direct.

As you are planning your presentation, follow the same general structure of your paper. Introduce your research with an interesting idea. For example, you might begin by presenting the audience with a question like: How can we reduce smoking? Then state your specific hypothesis and the general approach that you used in your study. You can then provide the audience with information about the participants, specific methodology, and results. Keep your presentation broad and don't focus too much on details. Present only the most important results. For example, if you found two or three important outcomes, then focus on those points.