Cognitive Cogs - the Mechanisms of Attention

Cognition is, per Google: "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses."

When we are speaking to an audience, it is worth keeping in mind that despite the amazing power of the human brain, it does have limitations when it comes to cognition. Here are some of the "cogs" you should keep in mind both when you are preparing a speech and when you are on the stage.

The Cogs:

Dissonance

The strain of holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously; this usually results in irrational conclusions or behaviors. 

Load

The effort a person must exert to take information in as well as commit it to memory. A speaker should always consider the impact of a presentation on the audience's cognitive load and attempt to keep it to a minimum.

Impairment

A condition where a listener is unable to pay attention due to, usually, a physical or mental distraction, such as not having had enough sleep, or perhaps tipping back an extra martini at the lunch break.

Drift

A speaker drifts, or causes drift, when his or her presentation lacks cohesion. Essentially, drifting is having an unfocused or unstructured speech that does not guide the audience or it does allows the audience's attention to wonder. It may also considered leading an audience down a rabbit warren of ideas without appropriate returns or conclusion.

Smoothing

Smoothing is the ability of a speaker to create a aural or visual environment that aligns with the core theme of the speech.

Distortion

The human brain can, and will, lie to itself. A speaker should keep this in mind when preparing a speech, because he or she is subject to it and a speaker's audience equally so. 

Tension

The act of deliberately offering polarizing points of view to a listener, or to provide only a one-sided, unanticipated, contrary or antagonistic point of view. Very common in humorous or sexually charged presentations. This must be used in conjunction with Cognitive Release.

Release

Release is the signal for a audience to release any tension that has been built up in their mindset through the previously continual build up of tension. Release is important because it creates safety and a bonding moment between the speaker and the audience. No release leaves an audience disconcerted or unsatisfied. 

Leap

Moving from one idea to another without necessarily providing adequate or logical context. 

Within each of the Cogs, there are more refined considerations a speaker should keep in mind: Are you over-generalizing? Speaking about a complicated topic to a lay audience? Has the audience reached a point of exhaustion? (Prevalent in extended multi-day conferences, for example.) The number of factors that impact how an audience receives your message are as innumerable as there are neurons in our heads. Luckily, us humans do have some level of predictability; the Greeks saw this over two thousand years ago with they codified the modes of rhetoric, giving speakers a common point of view to consider their topic, their audience, and their own personal motivations.

The best thing to remember is simply this: Your audience are not cogs — they're humans and as fallible as you are. So keep your audience's cognitive load in mind (as well as the other cogs) as you step up onto stage!