The Effects of Video

In Dr. Yael Granot’s article “"In the Eyes of the Law: Perception Versus Reality in Appraisals of Video Evidence", she describes in great detail the downfall video evidence can potentially have in the courtroom. Not only do individuals tend to over believe the information they find in videos, but scientific research can show that individuals select specific information to watch because our foveal vision is small. In a follow up study, Granot answers some concerns that individuals had, For example, individuals thought that watching a video more than once would increase their chances of seeing the full scene. However, she found that rewatching a video does not allow the individual to change their decision. Instead, they continuously focus on the same area they had previously. At the end of Granot’s talk, a question was asked concerning whether visual processing would be better for pictures or even screenshots of video surveillance rather than videos. Although Granot did not have solid evidence in her research to support this, she indicated that she believed visual processing would be better for motionless images compared to video.
In the article “There’s a Gap Between Perception and Reality When it Comes to Learning”, there are a lot of references to what Granot touches on but expresses it in a different way that many individuals could possibly relate to. Shankar Vedantam describes a small study he did regarding subjects trying to learn from Youtube videos. After watching a Youtube video, for example to learn how to juggle, participants thought they had thoroughly learned the task and could do the task without a problem. However, they were wrong. In addition, watching the video continuous times did not increase their chances of learning either. Similarly to Granot’s, this study shows that overconfidence or over belief can be found in videos. Furthermore, Vedantam learned through his study that reading instructions are a lot more useful in increasing chances of learning. This is not something that Granot directly addresses, but it supports her thought process in a more relatable way.



Granot, Y., Balcetis, E., Schneider, K. E., & Tyler, T. R. (2014). Justice is not blind: Visual attention exaggerates effects of group identification on legal punishment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(6), 2196–2208.
Vedantam, Shankar. “There's A Gap Between Perception And Reality When It Comes To Learning.” NPR, NPR, 18 Feb. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/02/18/695637906/theres-a-gap-between-perception-and-reality-when-it-comes-to-learning.