A bit outside our norm for this blog, but useful news for communicators everywhere:

New research pioneered at the University of NSW shows the human brain processes and retains more information if it is digested in either its verbal or written form, but not both at the same time.

The findings show there are limits on the brain's capacity to process and retain information in short-term memory.

John Sweller, from the university's faculty of education, developed the "cognitive load theory".

"The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster," Professor Sweller said. "It should be ditched."

"It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented."