Zeigarnik effect

Named after Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, in psychology the Zeigarnik effect occurs when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. It postulates that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. In Gestalt psychology, the Zeigarnik effect has been used to demonstrate the general presence of Gestalt phenomena: not just appearing as perceptual effects, but also present in cognition.^[1]

The Zeigarnik effect should not be confused with the Ovsiankina effect. Maria Ovsiankina, a colleague of Zeigarnik, investigated the effect of task interruption on the tendency to resume the task at the next opportunity.^[2]

Overview[]

Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik first studied the phenomenon after her professor and Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin noticed that a waiter had better recollections of still unpaid orders. However, after the completion of the task – after everyone had paid – he was unable to remember any more details of the orders. Zeigarnik then designed a series of experiments to uncover the processes underlying this phenomenon. Her research report was published in 1927, in the journal Psychologische Forschung.^[3]

The advantage of remembrance can be explained by looking at Lewin's field theory: a task that has already been started establishes a task-specific tension, which improves cognitive accessibility of the relevant contents.^[4] The tension is relieved upon completion of the task, but persists if it is interrupted. Through continuous tension, the content is made more easily accessible, and can be easily remembered.^[4]

The Zeigarnik effect suggests that students who suspend their study to perform unrelated activities (such as studying a different subject or playing a game), will remember material better than students who complete study sessions without a break (McKinney 1935; Zeigarnik 1927).

Harden rule[]

Sportswriter Matt Moore has suggested that the Zeigarnik effect could explain the widespread criticism of the National Basketball Association in allowing free throws for a player "chucking it up whenever a guy comes near them."^[5] There is a stoppage of play with each foul. When repeatedly done, it is felt to build up a cognitive bias against this move. The criticism necessitated a rule change penalizing this activity, known as the Harden Rule, named after its most prominent user, James Harden.^[6][7]

Criticism[]

The reliability of the effect has been a matter of some controversy.^[8]

Several studies, performed later in other countries, attempting to replicate Zeigarnik's experiment, failed to find any significant differences in recall between "finished" and "unfinished" (interrupted) tasks (e.g., Van Bergen, 1968).^[9]

Usages[]

Software[]

Zeigarnik effect is being used in some SaaS systems to onboard users faster and effectively.^{[citation needed]}

Zeigarnik effect emphasizes an "Aha! moment" as an uncompleted task.^{[citation needed]}

Usually, being implemented as user interactions gamification. These are some examples:

• Progress trackers which inform users of how close they are to complete a task. When users see a message like “You profile is 64% complete,” they are more likely to spend a few minutes on providing all missing details.
• Checklists to provide a clear step-by-step on-boarding flow.

See also[]

• List of cognitive biases
• Cliffhanger
• Closure (psychology)
• Procrastination

Notes[]

Further reading[]

Zeigarnik[]

• Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Das Behalten erledigter und unerledigter Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1-85.: a condensed and abridged English version: Zeigarnik, B. (1938), "On Finished and Unfinished Tasks", pp.300-314 in W. D. Ellis (Ed.), A Sourcebook of Gestalt Psychology, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.

Others[]

• Burke W.W., "A Perspective on the Field of Organization Development and Change: The Zeigarnik Effect", The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol.47, No.2, (June 2011), pp.143-167.
• Denmark, Florence L. (2010). "Zeigarnik Effect". In Weiner, Irving B.; Craighead, W. Edward (eds.). The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 1873–1874. doi:10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy0924. ISBN 9780470170236.
• Mazur, Elena, "The Zeigarnik Effect and the Concept of Unfinished Business in Gestalt Therapy", British Gestalt Journal, Vol.5, No.1, (1996), pp.18-23.
• McKinney, Fred, "Studies in the Retention of Interrupted Learning Activities", Journal of Comparative Psychology, Vol.19, No.2, (April 1935), 265-296.
• Oyama, Yoshinori, Manalo, Emmanuel & Nakatan, Yoshihide (2018), "The Hemingway effect: How failing to finish a task can have a positive effect on motivation", Thinking Skills and Creativity. doi=10.1016/j.tsc.2018.01.001
• Savitsky, K., Medvec, V.H. & Gilovich, T., "Remembering and Regretting: The Zeigarnik Effect and the Cognitive Availability of Regrettable Actions and Inactions", Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol.23, No.3, (March 1997), pp.248-257. doi=10.1177/0146167297233004
• Syrek, C.J., Weigelt, O., Peifer, C. & Antoni, C.H., "Zeigarnik’s sleepless nights: How unfinished tasks at the end of the week impair employee sleep on the weekend through rumination", Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol.22, No.2, (April 2017), pp.225-238.
• Van Bergen, Annie, Task Interruption, North-Holland, (Amsterdam), 1968.
• Weiner, B., Johnson, P.B. & Mehrabian, A., "Achievement Motivation and the Recall of Incomplete and Completed Exam Questions", Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol.59, No.3, (June 1968), pp.181-185.^{[dead link]}

External links[]

• Study advice
• Marketing usage