Poster Presentations

1. Poster Presentations Poster Presentation Procedure

2. Poster presentations are an economically efficient way of conveying lots of information • What is a poster “session”? • Science fair for grown ups • Why have poster sessions? • Efficiency!

3. What is the purpose of a poster presentation? • Overt – sharing of research • Covert – Networking! • Creating collegiality/connections among practitioners • Fishing for graduate students and post docs

4. A successful poster presentation has three parts • Creating a Successful Poster • Preparing the “Presentation” • Knowing the Procedure

5. Posters are visual! The poster is a of your research. The audience is on the move, not sitting still. Thus, visual appeal is critically important. Balance TEXT and GRAPHICS. visual representation

6. Necessary Text Title + Affiliation Abstract (use all) Introduction Methods Results Discussion For IMRD, write a short text and bulleted points Critical Graphics Background image that matches theme of research All of or excerpt of survey/s or materials Graphs of key results Relevant photos Choose text and graphics carefully.

7. Layout should reflect the presenter’s purpose. • Overall layout of poster depends on what you want to convey to audience • What it most important? • What is most persuasive? • Great Website --http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/posters.html

8. What is the process for creating a poster? • 3 or 4 “panel” design with several ways to organize poster • Use PowerPoint or Corel Draw • Sketch out by hand first • Set slide size in Page Set up for 44” x 36” • Lay out whole poster using text boxes with 15%-20% (or whole page) “view” • Enlarge to 25%-50% to work on individual parts • Save frequently! • Check whole poster for balance before printing • Print in Arch.118 or CSE E211 for just $6.00!!

9. Present the Poster! • Yes, Virginia, there is still a “presentation”! But it’s… • Conversational in tone – “chatting” about your research where you are the expert YET… • Still a Dialogue – cannot hog the floor

10. Know your research well. • PRIME DIRECTIVE: • For each section of your work, be able to answer the wh-questions: who, what, when, why, where, how KNOW THY RESEARCH

11. Practice the Presentation! • Prepare and Practice a 60-120 second response to the killer* question: “So, tell me about your research”. One sentence each: • Topic + significance of topic • Research Question • Methods • Results • Discussion * the preeminent fishing question!

12. Topic, Significance and RQ can usually be stated in a single sentence. The exchange of ideas, facts and feelings is at the core of our conscious lives.[TOPIC]Much communication involves stories, conversations and discussions reflecting various forms of connected discourse.[SIGNIFICANCE].In general, the greater somebody’s background knowledge, the better they understand a piece of discourse.While the functional neuroanatomy of phonology, lexicon and syntax has been scrutinized closely, there have been fewer neuroimaging studies examining comprehension and memory for passages of text in normal volunteers. The present study investigated the functional neuroanatomy of the auditory processing of discourse by manipulating coherence and prior knowledge.[RESEARCH QUESTION]. 

13. Method statement should include basics of design and population • Thirteen right-handed male subjects (mean age 31.9 years, range 25–43 years) took part in the study. Subjects were administered PET scans while listening to a standard story with good coherence and an usual story with lower global coherence. Subjects were then asked to recall the story. Each story was read twice for a total of 12 PET scans.[METHOD].

14. Results statement is a synthesis of what is most important. • Standard stories with global coherence were rated as fully comprehensible, even after one exposure. The unusual story, where prior knowledge was present from the outset, was also rated highly but was rated as hard to understand when no prior knowledge was available with a marginal increase in comprehension following repetition. Interestingly, when subjects were given prior knowledge between first and second exposures to a story, comprehension ratings increased significantly once the global theme of the story was known. [RESULT].

15. Discussion statement is a summary of strongest implication or application to field. In this study, we identified brain activations associated with auditory discourse processing (in the form of stories) by manipulating differences in global coherence and prior knowledge. The main finding was that an area of anterior medial parietal/posterior cingulate cortex was differentially active when subjects attempted to link what they were hearing with the prior knowledge that they brought to bear on the task. The more detailed picture of the neuroanatomy of discourse processing revealed five principal regions of increased brain activation: two in medial parietal cortex, two within prefrontal cortex, and another in the left temporal pole. The circumstances in which differential activation of these regions is observed gives insight into the effects of prior knowledge and coherence, and into the distributed neuroanatomy of comprehension and memory processing. [DISCUSSION].

16. Plan for other open-ended questions. • What is most important/significant about your research? • What should happen next? • How does this relate to the field? • Any practical applications? Prepare & Practice

17. Follow the procedures for Poster Presentations • Bring 3-5 hard copies of whole paper • Bring 20-50 copies of handout with copy of poster on one side (color if you can afford it) and brief summary of project, research references, and contact info on the other • Other material if applicable (copy of survey instrument, brochures, etc). • Stand next to poster and smile!