The Power of Visual Memory in Observation: Seeing Beyond Reality

In the world of investigation, observation goes beyond simply seeing something—it requires retaining and interpreting what you've seen. This is where visual memory plays a critical role. If you witness an event but fail to remember the details, have you truly observed it? I would argue, no. Observation, in its fullest sense, involves not only noticing but also remembering and building upon what you’ve seen.

Visual memory allows us to form a detailed mental picture of an event, space, or scene that we can revisit and refine over time. With each new glance or perspective, we can add layers of information to the image stored in our minds. The ability to retain these images and combine them with new observations—whether seen at a different time or from a different angle—enables us to create a mental representation that is often richer and more detailed than the original scene itself.

Connecting the Dots in Visual Investigation

In any trial, witness statements play a crucial role in shaping the narrative presented by both the prosecution and the defence. As a Visual Investigator, my work starts with these statements, which offer a verbal account of events, environments, and interactions. However, these statements alone are not enough. To uncover the truth, I compare them against the available visual evidence, ensuring that the story being told aligns with what is seen.

Building Mental Images from Witness Statements

Before I begin any visual investigation, I carefully read through the witness statements provided in the Prosecution Brief. These statements are more than just words on paper—they are pieces of a puzzle that help me visualize the sequence of events in my mind. By creating these mental images, I can start to build a mental movie of the event or situation, filling in the gaps that witnesses leave. This step is critical because it allows me to construct a baseline narrative. The mental imagery I create based on these statements helps me later when I delve into the visual evidence. I am not just reading the statements passively; I am actively engaging with the stories, allowing them to take shape in my mind so that I can visually compare different versions of the same event.

A Visual Investigator’s Perspective

One of the most exhilarating aspects of being a Visual Investigator is the state of mind I enter when I begin to work with images. It's as though I am unleashing a tiger and telling it to hunt. My eyes become voracious, scanning every corner of the footage with intense focus. As I delve deeper into the visual content, I enter what feels like a trance-like state, where time slows down, and my senses heighten. This focused attention, often referred to as mindfulness in seeing, is the key to unlocking hidden details in visual evidence.

What is Mindfulness in Seeing?

Mindfulness in seeing is the practice of engaging fully with what you observe. It’s about bringing a state of complete awareness to the act of seeing, paying attention not just to the obvious. For me, it involves slowing down, focusing intensely, and staying fully present. When I engage with video footage or photographic evidence, it’s not simply about looking—it's about seeing with intention. In this mindful state, my brain and eyes work together in harmony. The process is immersive. My mind blocks out external noise, and I enter a flow where I can observe fast-moving content frame by frame, sometimes noticing things that flash on the screen for mere fractions of a second. This heightened awareness is crucial in visual investigation. It’s in this mindful space that I discover clues that others may have missed.

A Skill Born from Practice and Neuroscience

In my work as a visual investigator, I’ve honed the ability to observe fast-moving content with a level of detail many might miss. From continuity errors to fleeting frames, I can quickly scan through footage at 24 frames per second (fps) and identify details in individual frames, even when they appear on the screen for just a fraction of a second. Interestingly, I trace the genesis of this ability to a device I used as a boy—a speed-reading trainer designed to improve visual processing. This observation skill aligns with how the brain processes visual information, particularly the concept of temporal resolution , the brain’s ability to process visual stimuli over time. While the average person can consciously register about 10-12 separate images per second (known as the "flicker fusion rate"), trained individuals can push this boundary. My experience has allowed me to process visual input at higher speeds, increasing my visual sensitivity.

Above these images are histograms, they represent the tonal distribution of the pixels in an image, showing how many pixels are present at each level of brightness. As you can see although the image may look clearer in the adjusted image the histogram shows that it actually has less visual information after manipulation.

The Benefits and Dangers of Digital Image Enhancement in Legal Investigations

As a Visual Investigator, I specialize in examining video and photographic evidence, looking beyond the obvious to uncover details. One of the most powerful tools at my disposal is digital image enhancement, which can dramatically improve the clarity of poor-quality footage. However, while this technology offers numerous benefits, it also comes with risks that must be carefully managed in legal settings.

Mosaic Observation: A Multilayered Approach to Video Evidence Analysis

Evolution has trained us to focus on movement as a signal of potential danger, so when viewing video evidence, our attention is naturally drawn to movement. However, important details in the still parts of the frame are often overlooked. In any investigation, video footage often serves as a critical piece of evidence. However, understanding the full narrative that the footage presents requires more than simply watching it through once. Rather than treating video as a single, continuous stream, I break it down into sections of the screen, enhance it in numerous ways and compare it to other sources of evidence to build a comprehensive 3D mental image. Mosaic Observation is my term for this detailed, methodical approach to reviewing video evidence. It is a careful, layered examination of the evidence, much like how a bird of prey circles its terrain from different angles until it spots its target. The strength of this approach lies in its depth. I spend considerable time reviewing the same footage repeatedly, allowing me to catch details others might miss—such as a fleeting shadow of an object or subtle eye movements that suggest intent. These small details can uncover inconsistencies or alternative narratives that are not obvious at first glance.