Forum Overview :: Eye of the Beholder :: Re: Eyewitness testimony

[quote name="Bruce Lee\\\'s mother-in-law"][quote name="Mischief Maker"]Here's a fun thing I learned about while working at the innocence project this summer. If I end up being a defense attorney I want 50 copies of this on DVD. If anyone already knows about this, please don't spoil it. Watch <A HREF="http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html" TARGET="new">this</A> video once. It's 6 MB so if you've got a slow connection let the thing fully buffer up before playing it. Now, letting it play only once, count the number of times people pass the basketballs in the air and how many times they bounce pass. See how accurate you can be, you might be surprised at the actual answer in invisible text below. <FONT COLOR="pink">The numbers are a red herring. Watch the video again without counting. Do you see anything you didn't notice before? Now the followup question: if a person has a gun or a knife pointed at you, where is your attention, on the gun or on their face. Now think about all the people in prison whose cases are entirely based on eyewitness testimony alone.</FONT>[/quote] Wait, am I supposed to lose count because I get distracted by the monkey (because that's what I did)? Or am I not supposed to see the monkey because I'm too busy counting? [/quote]