1. Effects of Distributing 'Handouts' during a Speech on Receivers' Inferred Information Processing
- Author
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Rufus L. Barfield, Jeff Butler, Burt Pryor, and Aaron R. Boyson
- Subjects
Repetition (rhetorical device) ,Recall ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Control (management) ,Perspective (graphical) ,Information processing ,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology ,Space (commercial competition) ,Sensory Systems ,Presentation ,Distraction ,Psychology ,media_common ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Sum~nary.-The experiment examined the adage that material should never be given members of an audience during a speech presentation. 45 students enrolled in speech fundamentals courses were exposed to one of three versions of a speech, which informed students of an impending $50 fee increase to improve university parking facilities. The speaker, allegedly a representative from Parking Services, discussed four main benefits of the fee increase. In one version, he began by distributing a handout listing four main benefirs to the he increase. A second version listed four benefits different from those identified in the speech, while a control condition received no handout. The control condition established the receivers' dominant cognitive response as negative. This negauve response was accentuated when the handout repeared the four main points but was less when the handout provided a competing me\sdgc lo the form of information not contained in the speech. Results were discussed u.~th reference to previous research on distraction theory and repetition of a message. Virtually all speech fundamentals texts devote space to the issue of visual aids. Their usual approach is to cite a series of "dos and don'ts" along with the perspective that use of visual aids are of potential benefit to speakers' success. Often repeated in popular textbooks is a study by Linkugel and Berg (1970) who reported that, when knowledge was imparted by telling alone, recall was 70% 3 hr. later and only 10% three days later. When imparted by showing alone, recall was 72% after 3 hr., 35% after three days. When information was imparted by tehg and showing, recall was 85% 3 hr. later, 65% three days later. Also, Bohn and Jabusch (1982) tested various methods of instruction, concluding that the visually aided presentations significantly enhanced message retention. According to White (1978, p. 158), "Experimental, as well as practical, experience demonstrates that most of our learning is acquired by means of the eye rather than the ear and that we learn more quickly, remember better and are more deeply impressed when both of these senses are uthzed." Speech textbook authors typically rely on findings he those above to support an array of generalizations about the use of visual aids and may go beyond the hits of reasonable inference. For example, one commonly cited prescription is a taboo about handing out visual aid material during a presentation. According to the popular view, to
- Published
- 1999
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