What to Know About Adult Audiences

Understanding motivation and the need to know

Motivation can be described as one’s willingness to do something, and is our reason for acting - or not acting - a particular way. It is a significant influence in purposeful participation of behavior and can be measured by the amount of engagement in an activity. An important condition of motivation is gaining participant attention by establishing meaning to the event via experience, knowledge, and values. The importance of this is supported by a foundational assumption of adult learning: the need to know the reason for learning something (Merriam & Bierema, 2013, p. 47).

If we apply this to how adults process information in general, then it is key to obtaining and maintaining adult attention. Adults must know their time is valued and that whatever they are about to do is worth the time and energy it takes to do it.

How Adults Process Information

Utilizing information processing theory

Our brains are constantly taking in and processing information. We do it both intentionally and subconsciously, but appealing to the intentional side is crucial to gaining audience attention during a virtual meeting.

Understanding that humans acquire, attend to, process, store and later recall information is known as the cognitive information processing theory and depends on memory. A widely used model of human memory is the Atkinson model and includes three stages that work together: sensory, working, and long-term memory.

Figure 1 outlines the three stages of memory that help us process and store information. The participant or learner will need to take action at each stage, and you can help facilitate. Here’s how you can help you meet your audience’s needs:

Sensory memory

Sensory memory holds initial information that is heard, seen, felt, etc. To ensure that information is received, you may find it beneficial to:

Appeal to selective attention – there is a human limit to how much information can be processed in a given moment. Selective attention is the act of consciously attending to what you are listening to so that you may tune into what is presently important. When you start your meeting, try:

• • telling your participants your needs and expectations. Let them know if you need them to turn off their cell phones, to ignore emails, or possibly to turn on their cameras if they have not already

Establish meaning – this lets them know you are respecting their time and appeals to their need to understand why you are meeting. Try indicating your intentions by:

• announcing the purpose of the meeting before you begin

• providing participants an overview of what you want them to know by the end of the meeting

Working memory

Once you have appealed to sensory memory, participants must attend to the information to make sure it proceeds to working memory. Working memory is the stage where your brain is paying detailed attention to the information, encoding it, and processing it for long-term memory. Working memory can be facilitated via:

Repetition – research has shown that repetition allows our brain to process stimuli more deeply, providing a chance to store better quality memories. If there is an important aspect of the meeting that you wish to come across and be recognized as particularly significant, try:

• mentioning it more than once

• summarizing the information

• circling back to it later 

Chunking – research has shown that on average adults are only able to store 3-5 chunks of information in their working memory at once, so overloading participants with information may not be a good use of time. Therefore, if you have a lot of information to get through and are using a visual aid to present your information, try breaking it up into more digestible pieces with:

• bulleted lists

• columns

• shortened text

Discouraging multitasking – the human brain lacks the architecture, or “neural building blocks” to actually perform two or more tasks at once. What is commonly understood to be multitasking is more likely task-switching, an unconscious act of averting our attention from one thing to another. Purposefully shifting attention is known as cognitive shifting, and according to a 2019 study “reduces the amount of short-term memory dedicated to a single task.” Trying to do multiple things at once disrupts focus and can hinder information retention. Things that may help include:

• shortening your meetings

• allowing stretch breaks

• keeping participants engaged with visuals

Long-term memory

Long-term memory is where the information you worked hard to store can be recalled from. The better the encoding was in the previous stage, the easier the recall should be (Merriam & Bierema, 2013, p. 174). If the key information you presented during your meeting makes it to your participant’s long-term memory, they have a good chance of being able to transfer that information to on-the-job practices.