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Observation Skills
1,513
Eyewitness Accounts
Our brains can filter information
Our brains fill in gaps in our perception.
- In order to make sense of what we perceive, our brains often enrich with detail what we see, taste, hear, smell, or feel.
- After an event, we can believe things were part of the background even though they were not.
- Reports from individuals about crime-scene events often vary.
- Observations depend on
- level of interest
- stress
- concentration
- amount and kind of distractions present
- prejudices
- personal beliefs
- motives
- lapse in time since the event
Prior Knowledge
- From the time we are born, our brains are gathering knowledge from our environment
- New information has to fit in with what is already in our brains in order to make sense
Our brains apply previous knowledge to new situations
What assumptions can you make about this scene? How might those assumptions be wrong?
View the following photo for 30 seconds
click to zoom
Answer the following:
1. How many persons are in the foreground of the photo?
2. What is the age and gender of the persons?
3. What type of clothing are they wearing?
4. What are the persons doing?
5. What is the number of the robot?
6. Can you describe where the picture was taken?
7. What type of chassis does this robot have?
How to be a Good Observer
Practice!
The skill of observation may not come naturally to you, but you can improve with practice!
View the following photo for 30 seconds
Answer the following:
1. At what location was the photograph taken?
2. How many vases are on the mantle?
3. What color are the vases?
4. What is on the 2 ends of the mantle? What
material are they made of?
5. What material is the fireplace surround made of?
6. What kind of sculpture is in the corner of the
room?
Click to zoom
The Innocence Project
- Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, starting in 1992, use DNA to examine post-conviction cases.
- The project has found that up to 87% of the wrongful convictions they discovered were due to faulty eyewitness identifications.
What is Observation?
A forensic investigator must be able to...
Record
Interpret
Find
Accurately determine the significance of evidence
Identify evidence as it appears to them
Document everything they see both in writing and with photos and/or drawings