It is not an “all you can say” buffet…

簡報無法暢所欲言

An insight into the psychological concept of “chunking” and how we can counter information overload during presentations. The two major goals of this article are to (1) deliver an effective and strong message (2) consider the audience’s mental capacity.

理解心理學的「切塊」概念，以應對資訊量超載的簡報。本文的兩個目的：(1) 傳遞強而有效的資訊 (2) 考慮聽眾的承受力

Let the brain digest… 讓大腦先消化

Imagine eating a whole pizza if it was not cut into slices, too much pizza at one time, right? This can resemble information overload when it comes to presentations. The challenge of delivering an effective message is when we do not know how much information is enough. How often do we think “the more the better” or worry that our presentations are inadequate? To define what is enough, particular factors have to be considered, such as: presentation purpose, style, duration, etc. However, from a general standpoint, cutting excess information is always doable in most scenarios. 

如果吃完全沒有切片的 Pizza，會覺得一次性塞太多了。這就像我們做簡報的時候資訊過量。傳遞有效資訊的難度在於我們根本不知道提供多少資訊才是足夠的。人們常認為「多就是好」或者是擔心簡報準備不夠充分。但怎麼定義是否足夠，要考慮許多特定因素，像是：簡報目的、風格、簡報時長等等。但一般而言，大多數情況下刪除多餘的資訊總是可行的。

Chunking 切塊

So, what is so-called “chunking”? Basically, it is taking a pie of pizza and slicing them into eatable pieces. In psychology, it is a memorization tactic, which refers to breaking a single form of information into smaller groups. By doing so, you create “chunks” or groups of information making it easier for the brain to retain. For instance, if I were to ask you to remember the following phone number within 5-10 seconds… 0905371102. It would be challenging to recall that number in such a short time, right? However, with chunking, if we broke up the number into bits…

什麼是「切塊」呢？基本上，就像我們把 Pizza 切成可以入口的大小的這一過程。心理學上，這是一個記憶策略，指的是把單一形式的資訊切分成更小的資訊組。通過這種方式，可以讓大腦更容易得保留住那些資訊小塊。比如，記一組 5-10 個數字的號碼 0905371102 在短時間內記住這組數字有點難，但如果進行切塊分組：

• 0905 371 102 1 Chunk: Instead of trying to recall 10 pieces of information [0905371102]

• 0905 371 102 3 Chunk: Try breaking it up into 3 parts [0905] [371] [102]

Chunking allows us to group things into logical formats that our brains can efficiently process. Moreover, applying logical associations can help even more with short-term memory. 

切塊使我們可以用邏輯將資訊分組，從而讓大腦進行有效地處理。此外，運用邏輯關聯對短期記憶有更大的幫助。

• 41238264 1 Chunk

• 4 123 8864 3 Chunk: 123 is easy to associate, just memorize 4 and 8864

This concept can be applied in numerous fashions when it comes to presentation skills. From outlining content to delivering information, chunking becomes quite a simple and powerful strategy.

這一概念適用於於簡報的各方各面。從概述內容到傳遞資訊，切塊成為一種十分簡單有效的策略。

Chunking Logically 切塊邏輯

When we are outlining our presentation, sometimes the information becomes cluttered and hard to organize. So, chunking in this case acts as a clarifying tool. We can think of it as grouping logical elements together by relevancy or association. We can observe a simple example of a grocery list.

在處理簡報內容的過程中，有時候會遇到比較雜亂無法進行組織的資訊。這種情況下，切塊就成了一種幫助釐清的工具。我們可以把它想成利用相關性和關聯性將邏輯元素組合在一起。以雜貨店清單為例：

• Oranges, salsa, lobster, olive oil, water, apples, fish, crab, avocados, tea

• 橘子、番茄醬、龍蝦、橄欖油、水、蘋果、魚、螃蟹、牛油果、茶

Here, I wrote all items I want to buy on my next trip to the grocery store. 

我這樣寫下我想要買的東西。

• Drinks tea, water

• Fruits apples, oranges

• Sauce olive oil, salsa

• Seafood crab, lobster, fish

• Veggies avocados

• 飲料：茶、水

• 水果：蘋果、橘子

• 醬料：橄欖油、番茄醬

• 海鮮：魚、龍蝦、螃蟹

• 蔬菜：牛油果

Here, I organized chunks by categorizing relative items, which can better help me recall the items.

透過對相關項目進行分類，可以更好地幫助我記得這些項目。

Chunking can be used for multiple organizational purposes: categorizing, prioritizing, condensing, and so forth.

切塊適用於多種整理目的：分門別類、排先後次序、濃縮重點等。

這篇文章還有後續，下篇將跟大家接續分享關於視覺以及口語表達方面可以如何切分內容。

本文作者：BFA 簡報