Practical Presentation Pearls: Evidence-based Recommendations From the Psychology and Physiology Literature

Oral presentations remain a common teaching method in academic radiology. The goal of these presentations is to transfer knowledge from the presenter's brain to brains in the audience in a way that sticks. A number of studies from the recent psychological and physiological literature offer some rather practical and evidence-based advice on ways to optimize our oral presentations. The purpose of this paper is to summarize this work, and to give examples of how it can be harnessed to increase the efficacy of radiology presentations, whether they are for resident education, a continuing medical education course, or for a scientific presentation at a national radiology meeting.