At professional gatherings such as annual conventions, psychologists have the opportunity to present their work in the form of a poster rather than as a formal talk. Conference attendees approach presenters in an exhibit area to talk about their research, which the posters concisely summarize. A poster features an introduction to the project, the method, information about the experiment’s subjects, the results, and the presenter’s conclusions.
Poster presentations also feature graphs and tables since it is important to convey information to the audience quickly and concisely as they walk through the exhibit area. An effective poster presentation will encourage the audience to ask questions and carry on an informal conversation with the presenter.
Your instructor may ask you to create a poster presentation about an experiment you or other researchers have conducted both to help you understand complex concepts and to practice your communication skills.
You can use presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint to create a poster by setting the dimensions of the file to a large format (a common size is 36″ × 56″). You then send your file to a large-format printer. Or you can print multiple pages for the different sections of your poster and attach them to a poster board.
You can also use presentation software to create a slide show that you can click through for a small audience or project on a screen for a larger group. Presenters generally include the same kinds of information in slide presentations as they do in poster presentations.
Related topics:
Literature reviews
Research papers
Theoretical papers