Understanding how humans learn and remember is helpful when planning demonstrative evidence. The first time a viewer is presented an information point, it goes into their short-term memory. There are several strategies to use to ensure the point then goes into their long-term memory, accessible when the decision-making time comes. First, the viewer needs the point repeated. The more times they see and hear the information point the more likely it will be retained in their long-term memory. Using different media to repeat the information ensures that it will be stored in different parts of memory, thus making it easier to recall.

Presenting the information in small, easily “digested” chunks, rather than as a continuous stream of data, also facilitates learning. Each information chunk is related to and builds upon previous chunks, all leading to an inevitable conclusion. This method not only makes it easier to remember new chunks of information, it reinforces the learning of the previous chunks. It is the same reason that ten digit telephone numbers are divided into three chunks, and books are divided up into chapters and paragraphs rather than one continuous stream of text.

In addition, when the viewer is presented the information as part of a unified structure, where all the information is related to each other and builds upon each other, the viewer stores it in their memory as patterns. This organization of the stored information makes it easier to recall.

Properly designed and developed demonstrative evidence facilitates all of these processes by presenting information using graphics, by presenting it using information chunks, and by presenting it systematically and as a part of an overall pattern structure. All of these characteristics support and reinforce the testifier and assists the trier of fact as they try to understand what happened.