Previous research showed that story illustrations fail to enhance young preschoolers' memories when they accompany a pre-recorded story (e.g., Greenhoot and Semb, 2008). In this study we tested whether young children might benefit from illustrations in a more interactive story-reading context. For instance, illustrations might influence parent-child reading interactions, and thus children's story comprehension and recall. Twenty-six 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds and their primary caregivers were randomly assigned to an Illustrated or Non-Illustrated story-reading condition, and parents were instructed to “read or tell the story” as they normally would read with their child. Children recalled the story after a distracter and again after 1 week. Analyses of the story-reading interactions showed that the illustrations prompted more interactive story reading and more parent and child behaviors known to predict improved literacy outcomes. Furthermore, in the first memory interview, children in the Illustrated condition recalled more story events than those in the Non-Illustrated condition. Story reading measures predicted recall, but did not completely account for picture effects. These results suggest that illustrations enhance young preschoolers' story recall in an interactive story reading context, perhaps because the joint attention established in this context supports children's processing of the illustrations.

Students often use PowerPoint for presentations. Pecha Kucha was introduced as an alternative type of PowerPoint presentation. Pecha Kucha is a fast-paced presentation style that forces students to focus on their message with automated, 20-second slides. Three studies, including a pilot, examined whether Pecha Kucha enhanced the quality of student presentations as compared to traditional PowerPoint presentations. In a pilot study, students chose their presentation style; those who selected Pecha Kucha had higher quality presentations than did those who used a traditional PowerPoint presentation. When randomly assigned to presentation styles, student presentation quality did not differ. In another experimental study, when students presented using both styles, Pecha Kucha presentations were rated higher than were those using traditional PowerPoint. The results suggest that Pecha Kucha is a new, useful presentation style for students.

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