Audience memory curve
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The audience memory curve summarizes research on what an ordinary presentation audience is most likely to remember from the presenter's messages. The audience memory curve is important when planning effective corporate communication.
The audience memory curve is a principle that relates to the amount of information a person is able to retain and remember from a presentation depending on the time that the information is presented. “Researchers have found that people have a ‘memory curve’ which enables them to recall what is presented or spoken in the beginning or end of the presentation and not much of what is presented or spoken in the middle of the presentation”.[1] Although an audience may attempt to listen to all of the data, examples, facts, and opinions in a presentation, the reality of the situation is that they can only take in and recall a small portion of what is said. The audience's attention tends to be high when a presentation begins, but as it continues, the audience's attentions may wander. Some people may tune in and out, others may daydream or become distracted. However, when a presenter nears the end of their speech with a phrase such as ‘to wrap up’ or ‘in conclusion’, most audience members tune back in and listen intently attempting to find out what they had missed along the way.[2] The audience memory curve principle is especially important when it comes to communication techniques. Understanding how this principle works is necessary to delivering a memorable and successful presentation.
When discussing the principle of the audience memory curve, it is worth noting the more well-known Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. This curve describes the decreased ability of the brain to retain memory over time. Ebbinghaus found the forgetting curve to be exponential in nature.[3] “Memory retention is 100% at the time of learning any particular piece of information. However, it drops rapidly to 40% within the first few days “.[4] Understanding Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve is important when discussing the audience memory curve because Ebbinghaus also described the various factors that can affect the rate of forgetting, which is useful when discussing ways to combat decreasing interest of an audience during a presentation. These factors include the meaningfulness of the information, the way it is represented, and physiological factors, such as stress and sleep.