Calling all evidence and criminal justice/procedure profs: test your students' powers of observation. No, not with that gorilla walking through the students playing basketball video. Here's a new one posted by Richard Wiseman at his website Quirkology. (It's also uploaded to YouTube). In it he does a card trick, but that's not all that's going on.
Dr. Wiseman and his lovely assistant demonstrate how bad most people are at observation when they are concentrating on one task. Dateline NBC also had a piece July 16 on this point: Dr. Michael Shermer was the guest.
What I particularly like about the Wiseman video, however, is that it presents two concepts. First, it makes the point above--that we tend to concentrate on the point to which the presenter directs us. Second, and this is what I think is of value to the law professor and student, is that when Dr. Wiseman "pulls back the curtain," and allows us to see how the trick is done, he also allows us to contemplate the value and the importance of narrative,of viewpoint, and of the whole picture.
Dr. Wiseman fools us not once but twice. First he fools us by letting us believe that the trick has to something to do with the cards. Well, it does, but only partially. Second, he fools us by letting us think that the video itself is the entire narrative. When the camera pulls back to show us the trick once again, and how the magicians and crew have constructed it, we also see it from their viewpoint. And we understand the importance of getting all the evidence. Students watching a police or client interview can do the same thing. They can ask themselves, "Am I getting the entire story? What, if anything, is missing? What, if anything, is the bias? Whose viewpoint is not getting through?" Students have great difficulty seeing viewpoints other than their own, and they are so often convinced that they see the truth, and so upset to discover that they might be incorrect. (Many human beings have this same problem, but I'm limiting my comments to students). They can then ask, "How is the narrative constructed? To what end? What's the point?" The ultimate question--Qui bono?
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