Not much is the usual answer! …most presentations go in one ear and out the other!
There have been various studies conducted on memory and presentations. The most generous results we’ve seen regarding what people remember are as follows:
- Immediately after the presentation, the audience remembered 50% of what was said
- By the next day, the audience remembered 25%
- A week later, the audience remembered just 10%
These stats are from a 10-minute presentation. Just 10 minutes! So it goes without saying that attention would drop after this short time and people would remember much less from longer presentations.
Other studies show that people only remember 3% from presentations! We’re not sure about the accuracy of these stats… there are so many variables, so it’s difficult to put a definitive figure on it.
How much do people remember
But what is undeniably true is that people remember very little from most presentations; and to make matters worse, everyone remembers something different.
There are hours, days, and sometimes even weeks wasated preparing presentations. Every single detail of every single point is laboured over. And then all that hard work goes to waste!
How much do people remember from a presentation?
Why do audiences’ remember so little? Basically, it’s because of the way our brains work; our brains function in a certain way and we can’t change that. But what we can change is the way we present our information so that it fits in with our brains’ processing capabilities.
In the next few blog posts we’ll explore how we improve on what your audience might remember from a presentation.
You can start with these:
5 ways neuroscience can help your presentation
Brain Rule #5: Memorable presentation structure.
You might also find John Medina’s Brain Rules to be interesting. Particularly the parts about attention spans!
