This week, I gave my 10 minute presentation on my research topic. I realized very quickly that my initial plan for the presentation was not going to work.
I had planned to start my presentation by explaining experimental psychology by giving an overview of the field and then discussing my research so far on what I want to study and experiment on. When recording myself as I talked about all of these things, I quickly realized that I did not have enough time to cover everything I wanted to. Even with the pauses I took while deciding what to say next, I realized I was well over my 10 minute time limit.
With the presentation date approaching, I thought about what I could explain well within 10 minutes. I decided to focus on the field of experimental psychology and save my specific research for the final presentation I will give in the second semester. I chose to focus on this because most people, while they have a general understanding, do not know much about what experimental psychology as a career entails. I talked about what experimental psychology is useful for, the process of designing a study, the ethics involved in psychological experiments, and what the future of the field holds.
I did not write a full speech in preparation for this presentation. Rather, I treated my slideshow like notecards and wrote the key points that I could reference if I had a memory slip during the presentation. I was surprised at how much I could talk about my topic and this process helped reveal just how much more knowledge I have about psychology now than I did at the start of the year.
With the coming fall break, I will spend my time trying to get my third interview and also fully dedicating my time to my original work. I hope to get a lot of work done while not having to worry about schoolwork.
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