Visual Resources Kollectionn

Witness Error: Tests & Demonstratives
	AWARENESS tests  ·  ‘look out for cyclists’ JUDGMENT tests  ·  ‘don't judge too quickly’ MEMORY tests  ·  witness recall  ·  eyewitness id PERCEPTION filtered reality  ·  gestalt  ·  logo tests

Visual tests and demonstrations showing that observers and witnesses:

• can be unaware of people and objects
• make incorrect judgments
• misremember and invent memories
• differently perceive and misperceive

Test yourself and your friends. Challenge witnesses in deposition and trial. Use as demonstratives with experts. Play in openings and closings. Show jurors.

ComCon offers a number of visual resources to view, test witnesses' skills, and/or play during trial to help jurors experience directly that attentive witnesses may not be aware of the presence of people or objects in a situation.

The effectiveness of these awareness tests hinges on viewers never before having seen the test. An aware viewer, on subsequent presentation, generally does not miss the information that viewers who have never before taken the test miss.

Try these awareness tests on yourself, test witnesses in depositions, or show them to a jury to demonstrate how even attentive witnesses can miss information.

Watch   The Card Test Watch   The Count F Test Watch   The Blink Test
Watch   The Phone Answering Test Watch   The Conversation Test Watch   The Color Change Card Test Watch   The Dribbling Test

Now take the "Road Test." The first video shows you the situation. The second video shows you the answer. When the answer is revealed, ask yourself: Did you see it? and Did you see it the same way in slow motion?

Watch   The Road Test Situation Watch   The Road Test Answer

Take the tests, test witnesses or show them to a jury to demonstrate that witnesses might not attend to unusual information or changes happening before their eyes.

Watch   Basketball Watch   Chest Rotations Watch   Phone Jokes Watch   Who Dunnit?

What a witness recounts he or she saw may be an inaccurate description of situations, objects, people and events.

ComCon offers a number of visual resources to view and play during deposition and trial to test witnesses, and to help jurors understand that well-meaning witnesses may (a) lack the ability to judge accurately or (b) lack circumstantial information and so judge incorrectly and recount inaccurately.

JUDGMENT TESTS

Psychologists have developed tests of how well people are able to make judgments of the physical qualities of what they observe. Height, length, size and color are common physical qualities witnesses report. Test yourself, challenge witnesses, and show juries.

Watch   Circumference vs. Height Test Watch   Building Length Test Watch   Line Length Test
Watch   Car Size Test Watch   Mug Size Test Watch   Alignment Test
Watch   Color Shade Test Watch   Checkerboard Shadow Test Watch   Dot Background Test
Watch   Circle in Light Test Watch   Dog Color Context Test

Watch   The Girls Watch   The Brownie Watch   The Hospital
Watch   The Parking Meter Watch   The Romantic Dinner Watch   The Plane Ride
Watch   The School Bus Watch   The Breakfast Watch   The Market

ComCon offers a number of visual resources to view and play during trial to help jurors understand that witnesses' memories may not be accurate.

Try these memory tests on yourself, and show them to a jury, to demonstrate how even motivated witnesses can fail to recall information at all, as well as to recall information inaccurately with certainty.

Watch   The Flowers Test Watch   The Images Test Watch   The Mystery Test Watch   The Words Test

The following videos demonstrate and discuss how the questions asked influence both witnesses' answers and how the answers are understood.

Watch   Question Phrasing: Car Accident Watch   Memory Distortions: Loftus Research Watch   Don't Talk To Police: Lecture Test

Take the test, or show the test to a jury, to demonstrate how even attentive witnesses can identify an innocent person.

Watch   Crime and Lineup Test Watch   Actual Suspect

Take the test, or show the test to a jury, to demonstrate the difficulty of doing a witness identification.

Watch   The Murder Watch   The Lineup Watch   The Murderer Revealed

ComCon offers a number of resources to show during trial to help jurors understand that a witnesses' perceptions can differ from each other, and from reality.

In reality, what people “see” is determined by who they are and what they expect to see.

Take these tests, and show them to a jury, to demonstrate that witnesses can be mistaken and need not be lying when they disagree or misperceive.

Which way is the dancer turning? Do you see the dancer turning clockwise or counterclockwise? Some people see the dancer turning clockwise, while others see the dancer turning counterclockwise. With effort, by staring at the shadows, the feet, different parts of the torso or other parts of the picture, people can sometimes change the direction they see the dancer turning. If you use a different browser you can sometimes change the direction you see the dancer turn because the dancer spins at different speeds in different browswers (e.g., she turns faster in Firefox than in Internet Explorer).

Do you see the room as it is, or as you expect rooms to be? Are the girls vastly different in size, or is the room of different proportions? People see what they expect to see, rather than the world as it is. Our memories guide, and distort, what we see. Watch   The Room

What object is on the table in front of the girl? What are your observations, and what are your inferences? People have difficulty separating what they see vs. what they think they see. Watch   The Object

Who is angry and who is calm? Are you at your computer, or 8 feet away? The farther you are away, the more "blur" there is in what you see. With increasing blur, the emotional expressions change. Watch   Angry and Calm

How do you describe the faces? Are you disturbed by the faces? Decoding of facial expressions works best in the orientation where faces are seen most of the time -- namely, upright. Watch   The Thatcher Effect Explained Watch   Original Thatcher Demonstration

When a situation is ambiguous, people can easily differ in their perception of the situation. An identical object can be understood as a pedestal or two people, an old woman or a young lady, a young lady or a sax player, two people or one person, or a duck or a rabbit. Some people are able to alter their "take" while others struggle to do so.

       

When a situation contains conflicting information, people can misperceive the situation. Identical center-circles appear differently sized, horizontal parallel lines are perceived as sloping, and nonexistent black dots are seen in linear crosshairs.

     

When a situation closely fits expectations, people can gloss over discrepancies. What is expected is what is seen, not what is actually present in the situation.

  

These tests are quick, and can be shown to a jury or used with witnesses to demonstrate limits to observation and judgment, awareness, memory and perception.

What do you see in the TOSTITOS logo? If you look at the center of this logo, you can see two people enjoying a Tostitos chip with a bowl of salsa. This logo conveys an idea of people connecting with each other.
What do you see in the FORMULA 1 logo? At first, this logo might not make much sense. But if you look closely, you'll see the number 1 in the space between the F and the red stripes. I also love how this logo communicates a feeling of speed.
What do you see in the MILWAUKEE BREWERS logo? The Milwaukee Brewers logo is made up of the letters M (on top) and B (below the m). The M and B form the baseball glove.
What do you see in the NORTHWEST AIRLINES logo? This simple looking logo actually carries a lot of information. You can see the letters N and W, the first two letters of the brand name. What most people don't see is the compass that points to the Northwest.
What do you see in the TOBLERONE logo? Toblerone is a chocolate-company from Bern, Switzerland. Bern is sometimes called "The City Of Bears", which has been incorporated into the logo. If you look closely, you'll see the silhouette of a bear.
What do you see in the BASKIN ROBBINS logo? The old logo of Baskin Robbins had the number 31 with an arc above it to reference its 31 flavors. The pink parts of the new logo retain the 31 flavors slogan while helping form part of the company's initials.
What do you see in the FEDEX logo? Do you see an arrow in the FedEx logo? If you need help in finding the arrow, roll your mouse over the logo.

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