Order Effects in Animated Sequences of Computer-Generated Evidence (CGE)

Order effects have been experimentally demonstrated to influence judgements where the most salient pieces of information are presented in a sequence either first (primacy) or last (recency). In a legal context, this can have a major impact upon the assessment and relative importance jurors place upon pieces of evidence. Computer Generated Evidence (CGE) is frequently used in courts as a technique with which to demonstrate complex sequences of events and/or collate various discrete pieces of evidence into a coherent story. One of the advantages of CGE is that it allows a number of different viewpoints to be examined in a way which is often not possible with still images. However, research has indicated that these viewpoints may produce disparate judgements themselves. Subsequently, where multiple views are presented, order effects may exist within the animated sequence itself. The current study examines the primacy-recency phenomena in relation to a road traffic accident depicted using three different viewpoints. Results indicate that some order effects exist, but that they are far from uniform. The legal implications are discussed along with suggestions for future research.