We’ve all sat through incredibly boring PPTs — and some really good ones. Harvard cognitive scientist Stephen M. Kosslyn, believes that good powerpoint is more of a science than an art. In his new book, Clear and to the Point, Kosslyn examines how information is visualized and outlines four basic rules around organizing and communicating in this popular format.

Even Kosslyn’s presentation of these four rules seem rife with clues designed to help our brains rember and reference them: The Goldilocks Rule, The Rudolph Rule, The Rule of Four, and the Birds of a Feather Rule.

There are plenty of business books on improving presentation skills but few of them are based on any kind of science.

The blog IO9 has an entry that summarizes Kosslyn’s own presentation on the subject at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston. The summary contains some pretty basic, but good advice including:

“The Goldilocks Rule refers to presenting the “just right” amount of data. Never include more information than your audience needs in a visual image. As an example, Kosslyn showed two graphs of real estate prices over time. One included ten different numbers, one for each year. The other included two numbers: a peak price, and the current price. For the purposes of a presentation about today’s prices relative to peak price, those numbers were the only ones necessary”

Link, Link to Clear and to the Point