Biology

The Zeigarnik effect refers to the cognitive process. The Zeigarnik effect is that

The Zeigarnik effect is named after its discoverer, female psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. She proved that unfinished business gives internal stress a person who makes you constantly remember these things and mentally return to them again and again.

Psychology - the effect of unfinished action (Zeigarnik)

In the 1920s, the successful psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik became the discoverer of this amazing effect. Like many discoveries, it was discovered suddenly when a waiter in a cafe memorized a very large order without writing it down.

Zeigarnik talked to the waiter, and he replied that he remembers all the unfulfilled orders, and completely forgets all those that he has already finished. This made it possible to make the assumption that a person perceives completed and unfinished business differently, since this also changes the status of significance.

Next, a number of experiments were carried out. The students were offered intellectual tasks. In the course of solving some of them, the researcher said that time was up. A few days later, the students were asked to remember the conditions of all the tasks. It turned out that those tasks that were not completed pop up in memory twice as efficiently! This is the effect of unfinished action, or the Zeigarnik phenomenon.

The beginning of a task creates tension, and its discharge occurs only after the completion of the action. Such tension is constantly striving to be relieved: people are uncomfortable in a state of incompleteness, and comfortable when things are finished.

The effect of unfinished action in love

In life, the effect of unfinished action can be very complex and very painful for those who are faced with it. Consider an example and find out how best to proceed.

For example, a girl falls in love with a guy, she is 18 years old. They spend only 10 days together, and then he leaves far, and the relationship is interrupted. Since then, they never saw each other again, only occasionally corresponded, but she remembers him 5 and 7 years later. Despite the fact that she has a man and a serious relationship, she cannot mentally let go of that situation.

In this situation, you need to determine what would be the end. For example, meeting that person, talking, discovering that he is in life and he is in dreams are two different people. Or mentally complete the situation, imagining what would have happened if everything had turned out differently. Each specific case can be analyzed by a psychologist who will help direct thoughts in the right direction.

Judgment as a form of thinking

In this article, we will delve into the issue of judgment, as one of the forms of thinking from the point of view of psychology, and talk about what judgments are.

Thinking and speech in psychology

The connection between thinking and speech in psychology is obvious, because speech is a tool for thinking and allows you to convert thoughts into word forms.

Family Psychotherapy

In this article, we will talk about family psychotherapy, since every family experiences various crises and difficult periods in family relationships from time to time.

Deviant and delinquent behavior

In this article, we will talk about what is hidden under the terms deviant and delinquent behavior and talk about why such deviations occur and what they can lead to in the end.

ZEIGARNIK EFFECT

Opened in 1927 by Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik during an internship in Berlin with Kurt Lewin / K. Lewin. The essence of the effect is that a person better remembers an action that has remained unfinished ... “According to legend, once Bluma went into a cafe with her teacher. Her attention was drawn to the fact that the waiter, having taken the order, did not write down anything, although the list of ordered dishes was extensive, and brought everything to the table without forgetting anything. To a remark about his amazing memory, he shrugged his shoulders, saying that he never writes down and never forgets. Then the psychologists asked him to say that the visitors whom he served before them and who had just left the cafe chose from the menu. The waiter was confused and admitted that he could not remember their order in any complete way. Soon the idea arose to test experimentally how the completion or incompleteness of an action affects memorization. This work was done by B.V. Zeigarnik.

Zeigarnik effect or how to use the completion principle

She asked the subjects for limited time solve intellectual problems. The solution time was determined by her arbitrarily, so that she could allow the subject to find a solution, or at any time declare that the time had elapsed and the problem had not been solved. After several days, the subjects were asked to recall the conditions of the tasks that were offered to them to solve. It turned out that if the solution of the problem is interrupted, then it is remembered better in comparison with problems successfully solved. The number of remembered interrupted tasks is approximately twice the number of remembered completed tasks. This regularity is called the Zeigarnik effect. Stepanov S. S., Popular psychological encyclopedia, M., "Eksmo", 2005, p. 245-246.

Source: Business Coach's Living Dictionary

The essence of the Zeigarnik effect in psychology. The results of studies of the psychological characteristics of human memory and their relationship with behavior. The relationship of stress from unfinished business with the psychological state of the individual. Modern application of the discovery.

Zeigarnik effect

Essence

The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological effect in which a person remembers material related to some unfinished actions better than completed ones.

From the point of view of Kurt Lewin's Field Theory, this is explained by the fact that access to memory traces is facilitated while maintaining the tension that arises at the beginning of the action and is not completely discharged when it is incompletely completed.

The regularity was revealed by Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik. Notably, research in this area has been the topic thesis author.

Biography of B.V. Zeigarnik

Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik (German: Bluma Zeigarnik; November 9, 1900, Preny Kovno province - February 24, 1988, Moscow) - Soviet psychologist, founder of Russian pathopsychology.

The result of Zeigarnik's thesis work, carried out under the direction of Kurt Lewin at the University of Berlin, is widely known, where she showed that unfinished actions are remembered better than completed ones ("the Zeigarnik effect"). Since 1931, she worked in the psycho-neurological clinic of the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine under the direction of L.S. Vygotsky.

Zeigarnik is one of the founders of the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University, the Department of Neuro- and Pathopsychology.

Bluma Zeigarnik's outstanding contribution to the development of psychological problems was recognized by the American Psychological Association, which awarded her the Kurt Lewin Prize (1983). In the USSR, she was awarded the Lomonosov 1st prize degrees (1978).

Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik was born on November 9, 1900 in Preny, Kovno province, where she graduated from high school.

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1. Zeigarnik effect.

2. Memoirs of B.V. Zeigarnik about his youth.

3. Years of work with K. Levin.

4. Hard time for B.V. Zeigarnik.

5. Scientific activity of Bluma Vulfovna.

6. Creation of scientific bases of pathopsychology.

7. The inner world of Zeigarnik.

8. Practical activities of B.V. Zeigarnik.

9. The riddle of the personality phenomenon B.V. Zeigarnik.

10. Bibliography.

1.Zeigarnik effect .

In 1927 The thesis was defended at the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Berlin. The leader is Kurt Lewin, a well-known psychologist already in those years. The topic is “On remembering completed and incomplete actions”, and the name of the graduate student is Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik. The work shows that unfinished actions are remembered almost 2 times better than completed ones; This phenomenon, as shown in the study, is based on urgent need(quasi-need, according to K. Levin). Bluma Vulfovna herself recalled that the next morning after defending her diploma, K. Levin called her and said, “Do you know what you have done? you committed scientific discovery". And indeed it is. The phenomenon of preferential memorization of unfinished actions, described by Blumov, was included in the world scientific psychological literature under her name - the Zeigarnik phenomenon, or the Zeigarnik effect. Graduate K. Levina, one of the brightest representatives famous galaxy his students, who were the pride of world psychology (it is enough just to name their names - F. Hoppe, M. Yuknat, T. Dembo, G. Birenbaum, etc.), B.V. Zeigarnik became famous, and her name was immediately attributed to among the classics of world psychology.

Personality B.V. Zeigarnik is the brightest psychological phenomenon deserving special study. The life of B.V. Zeigarnik, her creative scientific and clinical activities are admirable and can become a role model. We hope that these somewhat fragmentary notes will allow us to restore the vivid image of B.V. Zeigarnik.

2. Memoirs of B.V. Zeigarnik about his youth .

B.V. Zeigarnik lived a long and hard life. She was born on November 9, 1900 in the small Lithuanian town of Prienai in a large friendly family. The atmosphere that reigned in the family can now be judged only by some remarks by Bluma Vulfovna herself, who recalled her father, his common sense, intelligence and inexhaustible sense of humor. Perhaps the work of Sholom Aleichem can give some idea of the idea of benevolent irony that was constantly present in the family. A lively and capable girl successfully graduated from the gymnasium and left to study at the University of Berlin. Here, after a short "trial" training on several humanitarian faculties She entered the department of psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy. At the University of Berlin, B.V. Zeigarnik listened to lectures by famous psychologists - V.Kehler, M. Wertheimer and others. She attended lectures on philosophy, philology, and mathematics. I listened to A. Einstein's lectures. The topic of his lectures, she later recalled, did not captivate her, but the very personality of the lecturer attracted her with his creative originality, the mystery of a brilliant mind and bright character.

3. Years of work with K. Levin .

Bluma Vulfovna with her interest in inner world Pretty soon she found herself a psychology teacher. They became K. Levin. In those years, his psychological theory was still in its infancy. K. Levin himself, not much older than his students, was not only a teacher for them, but also a like-minded friend. B.V. Zeigarnik recalled that communication with K. Levin differed in style from what was accepted in the scientific and academic circles of that time. A person with a sociable, lively character, K. Levin involved his students in a special “search game”, often making direct everyday observations of people the subject of research. So, his seminars were often held in a cafe over a cup of coffee.

Zeigarnik effect

In particular, the very phenomenon of remembering unfinished actions was "peeped" by him in this situation. He drew attention (B.V. recalled) to the fact that the waiter perfectly remembers the order of each visitor. K. Levin asked the waiter to name, without looking into the book what this or that visitor ordered. The waiter, without hesitation, reproduced the contents of all orders. When it came to visitors leaving the cafe, he could not name a single order. "They've already paid off," he replied. Consequently, Lewin concludes, he no longer has the need to remember that the tense dynamic system - the quasi-need - has dried up. The ability to peer into everyday life, to see deep psychological “roots” behind its trifles, apparently, developed to a large extent in B.V. Zeigarnik during the years of work with K. Levin; throughout her later life, she improved these skills, based on observational data in her research work.

A special atmosphere of friendliness, mutual understanding, camaraderie united his students around Levin, was a breeding ground for their joint creativity.

After defending her diploma, Bluma Vulfovna continued to work in Levin's group, remaining in Berlin with her husband, an employee of the Soviet trade mission. Back in Soviet Union(apparently in 1931), she began to work in the psycho-neurological clinic of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, being the closest assistant to L.S. Vygotsky. It was during these years that she became close to many leading Soviet psychologists, becoming their comrade-in-arms and like-minded person.

4. Hard time for B.V. Zeigarnik .

The 1930s were a time of severe trials for Bluma Vulfovna. A wave of repressions grew in the country. Premature death of L.S. Vygotsky, she believed, was accelerated precisely by these events. The tests did not bypass Blum Vulfovna either. In 1938, her husband was arrested, she was left alone with her young son, her second son was born shortly after her husband's arrest. Fear, uncertainty about the future, material unsettledness in the long years settled in the Zeigarnik family. Among the few friends who remained faithful to her during these difficult years were A.R. Luria, S.Ya. Rubinstein. Before last days the life of Bluma Vulfovna S.Ya. Rubinstein remained her friend and colleague. At that difficult time, Susanna Yakovlevna helped her in everything, supported her morally, accompanied her on “campaigns” to the Lubyanka to find out about the fate of her repressed husband (he died in the dungeons of the KGB). Bluma Vulfovna Was grateful to S.Ya. Rubenstein for friendly help, highly appreciated devotion and responsiveness; often repeated to her students, who grumbled at her heavy character: “You do not know Susanna Yakovlevna. She is a true friend and a very good person.”

5.Scientific activity of Bluma Vulfovna .

During the years of the Great Patriotic War, having evacuated from Moscow, Bluma Vulfovna worked in the Urals at the Kisegach neurosurgical hospital, taking an active part in the restoration mental activity seriously wounded. The results of these studies were subsequently published. During this period, her scientific and personal contacts were strengthened with many of the largest psychologists in the country - A.R. Luria, A.N. Leontiev, A.V. Zaporozhets, S.G. Gellerstein and others. Later, B.V. Zeigarnik recalled them with great warmth and love, noting that it was during this period, under the influence of communication with psychologists of the Vygotsky school, that her idea of pathopsychology as a special field of knowledge took shape.

IN post-war years Bluma Vulfovna worked at the Research Institute of Psychiatry of the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR, where she headed the laboratory of experimental pathopsychology she created (until 1967). During this period, many remarkable domestic psychiatrists became her scientific partners - M.Ya. Sereysky, S.G. Zhislin, I.G. Ravkin, G.E. Sukhareva, D.E. Melekhov and others. At this time of heavy ideological oppression, the growing physiology of psychiatry (especially after the famous “Pavlovian session” of 1950), these clinicians of the old medical school not only remained faithful to the best traditions of psychiatry of the past (which did not think of effective work with the mentally ill without psychology), but supported and defended both Zeigarnik and her "young" laboratory. In particular, she felt reliable protection from prof. D.E. Melekhov, former director of the Institute of Psychiatry at the time when the trial of the "killer doctors" was being prepared. It was he who helped save the laboratory, and keep it on the staff of the institute (although there was already a decision to dismiss it). During these years, she conducted an extensive cycle of research that became the scientific foundation of modern psychology.

At the same time, B.V. Zeigarnik began to teach a course in pathopsychology, first at the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, then (since 1966) at the Faculty of Psychology. Since 1967, she became a professor at the Faculty of Psychology, where she carried out her work with enthusiasm until the last days of her life. Merits of B.V. Zeigarnik were awarded the Lomonosov Prize I degree (1978) and the International Prize. K. Levina (1983).

Bluma Vulfovna belonged to that generation, which fell to the lot of several wars of unprecedented severity, Russian revolution with all of her social consequences, totalitarianism, repression. The wheel of history left deep traces (or rather, wounds) on her fate. This could not but leave an imprint on her personality and general attitude. What she was like in her youth, during her work in Berlin with K. Levin, we will never know. Contemporaries and eyewitnesses are gone. Bluma Vulfovna herself (like many people of her generation), remembering this time), spoke little about herself, sparingly, reluctantly. True, those who knew her in the early 30s, after returning from Germany (A.N. Leontiev, S.Ya. Rubenshtein), recalled that she gave the impression of a brilliant (A.N. Leontiev’s word), cheerful , a talented person in everything.

Essence

The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological effect in which a person remembers material related to some unfinished actions better than completed ones.

The regularity was revealed by Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik. It is noteworthy that research in this area was the subject of the author's thesis.

Biography of B.V. Zeigarnik

Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik (German: Bluma Zeigarnik; November 9, 1900, Preny Kovno province - February 24, 1988, Moscow) - Soviet psychologist, founder of Russian pathopsychology.

Zeigarnik is one of the founders of the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University, the Department of Neuro- and Pathopsychology. Bluma Zeigarnik's outstanding contribution to the development of psychological problems was recognized by the American Psychological Association, which awarded her the Kurt Lewin Prize (1983). In the USSR, she was awarded the Lomonosov Prize I degree (1978).

Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik was born on November 9, 1900 in Preny, Kovno province, where she graduated from high school. After her marriage, in 1921 she moved to Berlin, where she entered the University of Berlin at the Faculty of Philology. There, influenced by Max Wartheimer's lectures, she became interested in psychology. In 1924, she began attending a seminar by Kurt Lewin, who dealt with the psychology of the individual, in particular, the study of the driving motives of the individual, the behavior of the individual in his environment, the needs and quasi-needs of the individual and their dependence on the social environment. Simultaneously with classes with Levin Blum, Zeigarnik continued to attend classes with other professors: for example, she studied at a psychiatric clinic with K. Goldstein, attended a course of lectures by E. Spranger and M. Dessoir on aesthetics. Around this time (1925), after conducting a series of experiments, Zeigarnik discovered a pattern that entered science under the name "Zeigarnik effect": unfinished actions are stored in a person's memory much better than completed actions. The experiment boiled down to the fact that the experimenter asked the subjects to solve a series of problems in a certain time. At the same time, the subject was not allowed to complete some of them, referring to lack of time. Later, the subject was asked to list all the tasks that he remembered. It was assumed that in the event of an interruption in the solution of a task, a certain level of emotional tension arises, which does not receive its discharge in solving the problem and, in turn, contributes to the preservation of this “unsatisfactory” action in memory (a hypothesis in the spirit of the school of K. Levin, under whose leadership experiment). It was shown that among the actions preserved in the memory, the ratio of unfinished actions to completed ones is 1.9. Thus, the result differs by almost 2 times.

In 1927 B.V. Zeigarnik graduated from the University of Berlin and returned to the USSR in 1931, where she became L.S. Vygotsky, worked in the psycho-neurological clinic of the Institute of Experimental Medicine.

In 1940, B.V.'s husband was arrested and sentenced to 10 years without the right to correspond. Zeigarnik, and she was left with virtually no support with her young son. During the Great Patriotic War, Zeigarnik and his son were evacuated from Moscow. During the evacuation, she worked in a neurosurgical hospital in the Urals. IN post-war period Bluma Zeigarnik headed the psychology laboratory at the Institute of Psychiatry, which was created with her direct participation. It was during this period at the junction general psychology and psychiatry, a special branch of psychology was formed - experimental pathopsychology.

§ Complete bibliography of B.V. Zeigarnik

§ "Impaired thinking in the mentally ill" 1959

§ "Pathology of thinking" 1962

§ "Introduction to Psychopathology" 1969

§ Fundamentals of pathopsychology 1973

§ "Pathopsychology" 1976

§ "Psychology of Personality: Norm and Pathology" 1982

Background

In psychology, the effect is known, named after its discoverer the Zeigarnik effect. This principle suggests that unfinished business causes a certain internal tension in a person, which makes you remember these things and return to them in your thoughts again and again. Briefly, the history of the issue is as follows. In the late 20s of the last century, the future Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, with a group of students and his teacher, were in a cafe, where they were surprised by a waiter who remembered, without writing down, their large order.

After talking with the waiter, they found out that he remembered all the unfulfilled orders, but no longer remembered those that he had just completed. Zeigarnik suggested that a person remembers completed and unfinished actions differently due to their different significance for him. She later developed this idea. In her experiments, subjects had to solve intellectual problems. She determined the time for solving the problem arbitrarily and at any moment she could declare that the time had run out and the problem had not been solved. After a few days, the subjects had to remember the conditions of the tasks that were offered to them. It turned out that if the solution of the problem was interrupted, it is remembered better than the solved problems by about two times. This feature is called the Zeigarnik effect. Zeigarnik found that the start of a task creates a memory voltage that does not release until the task is completed. This tension is constantly striving for realization, for its completion. This desire affects the memory and behavior of a person. That is, a person strives to complete his tasks. People like to feel complete and vice versa do not like incompleteness.

In my opinion, the main conclusion that can be drawn from these experiments is that it is not necessary to have many unfinished tasks at the same time. Any started and unfinished task keeps tension in your memory. This tension diverts your energy.

At the household level, this is generally understandable, but as we can see, the effect has been confirmed experimentally.

Everyone, of course, has their own reasonable limit on the number of tasks that are in the process of being solved. We must understand it and try not to exceed it. If the task is large and the time to solve it is delayed, it is better to break it into parts in order to get satisfaction from solving subtasks.

You have to be careful about making commitments. If you take tasks into work, then only those that you really need.

And what's more interesting - you may have some very old unfinished tasks that are already forgotten in their direct form. But they can maintain their tension and thereby influence your behavior. It is desirable to remember and complete them, if of course this is possible.

Completion releases energy.

Modern application

zeigarnik effect memory behavior voltage

One of the foundations of human psychology is the fact that no human being absolutely tolerates uncertainty. Any person tries to find answers to all his questions as quickly as possible. It is on this feature of human psychology that the so-called uncertainty effect is based. Absolutely all articles, videos and stories that use the effect of uncertainty most often end unexpectedly, absolutely not resolving a difficult situation and not unleashing it in any way. It is this effect that is very often used in advertisements, during which advertisers ask visitors provocative and at the same time very interesting questions, the answers to which can only be obtained by clicking on a link. Thus, readers or site users remember the information posted on the site much better, even if small details are remembered much more clearly and accurately. This effect is called the Zeigarnik effect and is very effective when writing texts for the web, as it helps to interest and attract more and more readers.

Sometimes we have to leave this or that action unfinished due to various reasons. Well, after that we can suffer at night, and this unfinished business will remind of itself again and again with annoying thoughts, even if this is the very thing and there is no need to complete it for one reason or another. This does not speak at all about our high degree conscience or something like that. The thing is that in the theory of modern Gestalt psychology there is such a thing as the Zeigarnik effect, which owes its name to the Soviet scientist B.V. Zeigarnik.

Who is she - Bluma Volfovna?

Bluma was born in 1900 in the north-east of Russia, and throughout her childhood and adolescence, nothing foreshadowed her high achievements in pathopsychology. At the age of 21, the girl got married and moved to Berlin, where she entered the institute.

And it was only during her visits to lectures that she became thoroughly interested in the various processes that manifest themselves in human behavior in this or that violation.

It is surprising that the phenomenon, which would later be given the name "The Zeigarnik Effect in Psychology" and which would glorify Bluma Volfovna, became the object of study in the doctor's works even in her student years and was the main topic of her thesis. Of course, throughout her life, Mrs. Zeigarnik made many discoveries, having worked as an assistant to L. S. Vygotsky in the neuropsychiatric clinic at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. However, her first work, studied and open to the world V young age, has become an indispensable contribution to the Gestalt psychology of the modern world.

Tandem of a Russian psychologist and a Berlin waiter

As mentioned earlier, the Zeigarnik effect was discovered by Dr. Dr. in her student years. The 20s of the 20th century were in the yard, and young Bluma at that time was undergoing an internship with the luminary of pathopsychology. Once upon a time, a great doctor and scientist decided to visit one of the usual crowded German cafes, inviting his trainee Zeigarnik there. The effect of an unfinished action, as one of the laws of Gestalt psychology, was born in the student's head on that very day, and this happened for the following reasons.

When the waiter came, he did not write down a single word from the voiced list of orders of visitors, but at the same time he forgot absolutely nothing, and after a while the dishes were on the table. Surprised by the phenomenal abilities of the service worker, Bluma Volfovna noted extremely good memory waiter. However, he said that he never records anything. Then Zeigarnik asked the waiter to name what the people at the tables he served earlier ordered - and he could not fully remember the order, citing the crowded cafe.

The first tests to confirm the phenomenon

Having become interested in this issue and looking for scientific confirmation for it, after some time Bluma Zeigarnik, together with his friend and classmate Maria Ovsyankina, decided to conduct a certain experiment.

A certain group of people participated in the experimental actions, before whom the goal was set in solving intellectual problems. At the same time, some people managed to solve the problem completely, while others were interrupted, not giving them the opportunity to complete the task. As a result, after a few days, the subjects were asked about the content of the tasks, and only those who did not manage to solve them to the end clearly remembered the conditions of the tasks. This phenomenon is called the Zeigarnik effect. Or - in a different way - the effect of an unfinished action.

The Zeigarnik Effect, or How to Use the Completion Principle

Every psychological phenomenon has its own practical use V Everyday life, therefore, often each of us suffers from the effect of an unfinished action, torturing ourselves with unwanted memories of a particular incident.

Nobody likes uncertainty. But in modern world Many advertisers and marketers use the action in progress effect to promote a product on web pages, and simply in television advertising.

How it works? If we are talking about advertising on web pages, then often only key phrases with an appeal to the consumer are applied to the banner. However, they are composed in such a way that they seem unfinished. Therefore, users of Internet pages, subconsciously avoiding the effect of incompleteness, follow the link and receive new information. At the same time, the received data will be assimilated much better, since the principle of completion took place.

And now you ask: and why do some TV commercials keep spinning in the memory? And we will answer you: precisely for the same reason of the effect of incompleteness. Often from the screens, we receive appeals from manufacturers, a kind of dialogue with the viewer, which necessarily contains a question that, in fact, is remembered the most.

The phenomenon of incompleteness in love

Often we cannot forget about this or that person with whom we had a romantic or friendly relationship, justifying ourselves and choosing various psychological effects as an excuse. The Zeigarnik effect can explain a lot of the pain of broken relationships, especially if there was no obvious separation and division of property between the partners.

Therefore, it is strongly not recommended to part with former lovers by phone or the Internet. The injured party will not be able to fully realize that everything is over, and this phenomenon of incompleteness will lurk in the subconscious of a person, not letting go of the image of a former lover.

The same applies to relationships that are destroyed due to a sudden distance between people. For example, if one of the halves leaves to work in another city and gradually weans from a loved one, there must be a fact of parting in person. Otherwise, such a "silent" gap can painfully affect the subconscious of the injured party.

How to recognize the Zeigarnik effect in yourself and how to deal with it?

After reading this article, some of you may have begun to wonder if this very effect of unfinished action is spoiling your life? Let's try to figure it out.

The fact is that there are some symptoms, like a real disease itself, that indicate the constant cyclical principles of incompleteness in your life:

if you feel constant anxiety, despite the coherence of life, Good work and having a family
if your personal life does not add up again and again for reasons you do not understand;
if you often think out to yourself the continuation of certain words of the interlocutor;
if you feel that you are stepping on the same rake more and more often.

The above symptoms are not at all signs of ordinary life failures. All problems lie within the person himself. You just need to open your eyes to the sometimes very painful truth and rethink the current unfinished situations.

And no treatment is needed at all, and there is no need to look for old acquaintances and complete unfinished business. Just think for yourself that a lot of time has passed, and it’s time to let go of the situation, you don’t need to justify and feel sorry for someone. You will see - life will become easier. Just let go.

The Zeigarnik effect is an unfinished action effect.

Question

Experiment

The influence of the nature of the material on memorization.

1) The influence of the arrangement of elements in a row. If the memorized material consists of elements arranged in a row, then the elements at the beginning and at the end are remembered faster than the elements in the middle. Worst of all, elements that are somewhat shifted from the center to the end of the row are remembered.

Foucault: this is the result of the interaction of 2 processes of inhibition, simultaneously acting in the course of learning and slowing down the latter. The first process, progressive internal inhibition, manifests itself in the fact that responses to previous stimuli have an interfering effect on responses related to subsequent stimuli. The second process, regressive internal inhibition, manifests itself in the fact that responses to subsequent stimuli have an interfering effect on responses related to previous stimuli.

* Interference - deterioration in the preservation of the memorized material as a result of the impact (overlay) of another material with which the subject operates.

The degree of homogeneity of the material (similarity and difference).

a) If 2 or more stimuli have common features, then they are said to be similar. The number of trials required to achieve the same learning criterion increases with increasing similarity between material items.

b) Regardless of the nature of the material, if heterogeneous elements are interspersed with a large number of homogeneous elements in the memorized series, then these heterogeneous elements are preserved better than homogeneous ones. (Von Restorf effect).

Meaningfulness of the material.

Well-meaning material is easier to memorize than poorly meaningful material.

With the same exercise time, the greater the number of memorized stimuli, the higher the degree of meaningfulness of these stimuli.

To achieve the same criterion of learning when memorizing meaningless material, a longer exercise is required than when memorizing meaningful material.

The role of exercise. Distribution of exercises and relative difficulty of tasks.

When it comes to memorizing k-l material, when they want to achieve the maximum level of learning with a minimum duration of exercises, which is preferable - to repeat the exercises continuously until the assimilation criterion is reached, or to distribute the exercises over time?

The results indicate that the number of trials required for repetition is somewhat greater when all repetitions fall on the same day.

Yost: by repeating the rows of syllables, the subject establishes m / y associations with various elements of the material; with distributed learning, “old” associations are updated, the “prescription” of associations is the greater, the more time has passed from exercise to reproduction. With concentrated learning of repetition, the newest associations are actualized.

Thus, from two associations of the same strength, of which one is older than the other, with subsequent repetition, the old association will be better updated (Jost's law).

When the material is such that it can be learned with a relatively small number of repetitions, it is preferable to use the method of concentrated learning; if, on the contrary, a significant number of repetitions is necessary to master the material, then the method of distributed learning will be the most economical.

Influence of breaks in activity on memorization.

Zeigarnik effect. The Zeigarnik effect is an unfinished action effect.

Question: how the memorization of actions that were interrupted before the end and the memorization of completed actions correlate.

Experiment: the subject was given tasks that he d.b. perform as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, he was not allowed to complete all the tasks to the end: half were interrupted before they were completed. Completed and interrupted tasks followed in a random sequence. After the last task, the subject was asked to recall the tasks he did during the experiment.

The result of the study showed that incomplete actions are remembered better than completed ones.

Incomplete tasks are 3 times more likely to be named first than completed ones. The number of remembered interrupted tasks is about twice as high as the number of remembered completed ones.

But it is not always observed. It turned out that with a very strong interest, completed tasks were better remembered, and with a weak motivation, interrupted ones. At adequate self-assessment the effect of unfinished action was observed, but not with increased or decreased self-esteem.

The role of attitudes, the nature and strength of motivation and emotional reactions in the processes of P.

Along with the properties of stimuli and exercises in the performance of a task, the effectiveness and psychological content of reproduction and recognition are determined and often decisive by the motives of the individual, his affective reactions, attitudes, habits, ways of organizing and perceiving stimuli, etc., acting at the level of learning and mnemonic activity. Ultimately, both the reproduction and inhibition of associations, as well as various P.'s disorders, are a product of the interaction of these factors.

Memorization and reproduction depend not only on the objective connections of the material, but also on the attitude of the individual towards it. This attitude is due to the orientation of the personality - its attitudes, interests and the emotional coloring in which the significance of the material for the personality is expressed.

The item of the person has selective character. It is expressed in the fact that we remember in essence what is significant and interesting to us.

Memorization in a person essentially depends on the conscious attitude to memorization. Memorization is an act of will. The setting to memorize is an essential condition for memorization; without it, a simple repetition of the presented row does not have an effect. The setting can affect not only the very fact of memorization, but also its duration.

In some cases, the orientation of the personality is due to unconscious attitudes that act involuntarily, unintentionally.

Emotional moments also play a role in memorization. Other things being equal, emotionally rich will be more strongly imprinted than emotionally neutral; but in some cases it will be better to remember the pleasant, in others - the unpleasant, depending on what in this particular case is more relevant, more significant due to its relationship to the person's personality. Remembering an emotionally vivid impression will depend on its significance for a given personality, on what place it will take in the history of its development.

The meaning of the rhythmic and semantic grouping of material.

Memory and learning. How do we learn h-n? Exercise, study, training.

Obviously, in almost any practice that is difficult enough for masters or professionals to master, it takes years of study and practice to achieve a high level.

How do we remember? Sometimes this happens very easily. Sometimes it's hard to remember.

To remember is to successfully cope with three tasks: assimilation, preservation and re-retrieval of information. Not to remember means not to cope with one of these tasks.

Learning and memory are closely related. But learning is not just memorization, it is also the development of a skill, the ability to perform some task. Learning is associated with purposeful recall and skillful actions.

Cognitive P. is the process of preserving knowledge. The knowledge gained during training is perceived at first as something external to the individual, but then gradually turns into experience and beliefs.

Phenomenal P. and the problem of forgetting. The main difficulty in extracting information is connected with the structure of the P. and with a large amount of material embedded in it.

For successful extraction, it is not enough that necessary information preserved. The desired event d.b. described in a way that would distinguish it from all other similar events.

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. The efficiency of retention decreases rapidly during the first hour after memorization; then this rapid decline is replaced by a strongly pronounced deceleration phase, during which the slope of the curve gradually becomes weaker and finally quite insignificant.

Material, 60

saving

1 2 6 Time interval, days

It can be seen that immediately after the initial memorization, the curve drops sharply, but later the rate of forgetting slows down, and after two days memorization is kept almost at the same level. And after 6 days, less than 20% remains.

The results of Ebbinghaus' research:

* Individual elements of information are remembered, stored and reproduced not in isolation, but in certain logical structures and semantic associations.

* If the number of members of the memorized series is increased to a quantity exceeding the volume of short-term P., then the number of correctly reproduced members of the series upon a single presentation decreases, compared with the case when the number of units in the memorized series is exactly equal to the volume of short-term P.

* If such a series increases, at the same time the number of repetitions required for memorization increases.

* Preliminary repetition of the material to be memorized reduces the time for memorization later.

* Edge effect: when memorizing a long row, the beginning and end are better remembered.

* Repetition of learned material in a row is less productive for its memorization than the distribution of such repetitions in a certain period of time.

* What a person is more interested in is remembered without difficulty, especially in mature years.

* Rare, strange, unusual impressions are remembered better than ordinary, often occurring ones.

* Relatively simple events that make a strong impression are remembered quickly and for a long time.

The theory of forgetting, retroactive and proactive inhibition.

Forgetting is a process characterized by a gradual decrease in the possibility of recalling and reproducing the memorized material.

Forgetting is a process that leads to a loss of clarity and a decrease in the volume of material fixed in P., the inability to reproduce.

Z. especially intensively occurs immediately after memorization. This pattern is general, although meaningful visual or verbal material is forgotten more slowly than, for example, sequences of numbers or meaningless syllables.

The presence of interest in the memorized material leads to its longer preservation.

The main content of the material is most fully and firmly preserved; minor details are forgotten faster.

Retroactive inhibition - 1) the negative effect of D., following memorization, on the subsequent reproduction of the memorized material. 2) an integral nervous process that slows down learning as a result of the fact that responses to subsequent elements of the memorized material have an inhibitory effect on responses related to its previous elements - the previously received material is forgotten under the influence of subsequent memorization.

R.t. the stronger, the greater the similarity between the m / y of D. memorization and subsequent D. both in content and in the conditions for their implementation. R.t. decreases if in two sequentially memorized materials the number of not similar, but identical elements increases.

R.t. also occurs when D., performed after memorizing the material, requires great mental effort and causes fatigue, or if it is extremely entertaining, associated with strong positive or negative emotions.

Proactive inhibition is an integral neural process that slows down learning due to the fact that the responses related to the previous elements of the material inhibit the responses related to its subsequent elements.

This is a forward-acting inhibition, a difficulty in memorizing material under the influence of the previous memory. This influence is the stronger, the more similar the previous memory is to the subsequent memorization process.

The combined action of proactive and retroactive inhibition explains the faster forgetting of the middle of the material being learned (in the case of its vastness and uniformity in content) than the beginning and end, because. the middle parts of the material experience the inhibitory influence of its preceding and subsequent parts.

Spontaneous forgetting and forgetting as an action.

Facts and theories of reminiscence. Reminiscence is a more complete and accurate reproduction of the material stored in P. in comparison with the originally captured (memorized), provided that since the moment of memorization the subject has not been engaged in additional exercises in this task.

R.'s phenomenon was studied within the limits of 2 private questions. The first concerns the quantitative improvement of retention on subsequent reproductions (Ballard's phenomenon), and the second concerns the quantitative improvement of retention over time in the absence of any recall of the reproducible object at all (the Ward-Hovland phenomenon).

These two approaches suggest that R. is synonymous with "quantitative improvement in P.". However, the meaning of the term is too narrowed, because recall of previously unreproduced material may be accompanied by forgetting, short-term or complete, of other mnemonic responses that were correctly reproduced during the previous reproduction.

Ballard phenomenon.

The subjects had to memorize different material (poetry, prose passages, etc.) in a time insufficient to achieve the criterion of complete assimilation.

The results showed that reproduction becomes maximum after 2 or 3 days.

Thus, R. is a process opposite to forgetting and capable of having a beneficial effect on mnemic processes for several days.

Williams:

The improvement in long-term P. obtained by Ballard is largely caused by the repetition in the mind of the material in the periods between memorization and reproduction.

G. McGech:

The subjects who probably refrained from repetition found practically the same measure of R. as those subjects who resorted to such repetition.

Brown's hypothesis(the most satisfactory interpretation of the Ballard phenomenon):

The absence of long-term forgetting is the result of the accumulation of memories, each of which contributes to the consolidation of the reproduced responses, thereby increasing their disponibility, i.e. the probability of their recall during subsequent playback; this process favors the actualization of the elements of this task that have not yet been reproduced.

The most characteristic forms of P.

Disorders P. - reduction or loss of the ability to remember, store, recognize and reproduce information. The following disorders of P. are distinguished: amnesia - absence of P., hypermnesia - strengthening of P., hypomnesia - weakening of P., paramnesia - deceptions of P.

One type of amnesia is progressive amnesia. Patients do not remember the past, confuse it with the present; shift the chronology of events; disorientation in time and space is revealed.

Hypermnesia - as a rule, is innate in nature and consists in particular of remembering information (visual, symbolic) in a larger volume than normal and for a longer period.

Hypomnesia - either occurs after various diseases (sclerosis of cerebral vessels, etc.), or is congenital.

Paramnesias are subdivided into P.'s deceptions according to the type of "already seen", into mixtures of P.'s traces, into the appearance of false memories that have a repeated character.

P.'s disorders are also manifested in the processes of perception as a failure to recognize familiar objects. In such cases, P.'s disorders are included in the syndrome of agnosia.

ZEIGARNIK EFFECT

(English) Zeigarnik effect) - mnemonic effect, consisting in the dependence of efficiency memorization material (actions) on the degree of completion of actions. Z. e. named after the student who discovered it in 1927 TO.Levina - B.IN.Zeigarnik. The essence of the phenomenon is that a person better remembers an action that remains incomplete. This is due to the tension that arises at the beginning of each action, but does not receive a discharge if the action has not ended. The effect of preferential retention in involuntary memory of an interrupted, unfinished activity is used in pedagogy and art.

Big psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .

Zeigarnik effect

ZEIGARNIK EFFECT (With. 245)

One of the well-known phenomena, now described in all psychological dictionaries and textbooks, was discovered in the 20s. our compatriot B.V. Zeigarnik was named after her. Interesting, however, is not only the discovery itself, but also how it was made.

In those years, Zeigarnik trained in Berlin with the famous psychologist Kurt Lewin. One day, with her teacher, she went into a crowded cafe. Her attention was drawn to the fact that the waiter, having taken the order, did not write down anything, although the list of ordered dishes was extensive, and brought everything to the table without forgetting anything. To a remark about his amazing memory, he shrugged his shoulders, saying that he never writes down and never forgets. Then the psychologists asked him to say that the visitors whom he served before them and who had just left the cafe chose from the menu. The waiter was confused and admitted that he could not remember their order in any complete way. Soon the idea arose to test experimentally how the completion or incompleteness of an action affects memorization. This work was done by B.V. Zeigarnik.

She asked the subjects to solve intellectual problems in a limited time. The solution time was determined by her arbitrarily, so that she could allow the subject to find a solution, or at any time declare that the time had elapsed and the problem had not been solved.

After several days, the subjects were asked to recall the conditions of the tasks that were offered to them to solve.

It turned out that if the solution of the problem is interrupted, then it is remembered better in comparison with problems successfully solved. The number of remembered interrupted tasks is approximately twice the number of remembered completed tasks. This regularity is called the Zeigarnik effect. It can be assumed that a certain level of emotional tension, which did not receive discharge under the conditions of an incomplete action, contributes to its preservation in memory.

An interesting refinement of this experiment is due to Paul Fresse. He asked the subjects twenty problems, but allowed them to solve only ten, and then asked how many problems, in the opinion of the subject, he managed to solve. It turned out that people who are self-confident and focused on success tend to exaggerate their achievements somewhat and believe that they have successfully coped with most tasks. Those with low self-esteem are more likely to underestimate their successes. So this experiment turned into an interesting form of personality diagnostics.

Popular psychological encyclopedia. - M.: Eksmo. S.S. Stepanov. 2005 .

See what the "Zeigarnik effect" is in other dictionaries:

ZEIGARNIK, EFFECT- First put forward by Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927, the generalization that unfulfilled tasks are remembered better than completed ones. Today the term is commonly used in reference to the principle that any task that has been interrupted will be recalled... ... Dictionary in psychology

Zeigarnik effect- (1927) a generalization according to which unfulfilled tasks are remembered better than completed ones (that is, as B.V. Zeigarnik emphasizes, completed with a sense of satisfaction) ... encyclopedic Dictionary in psychology and pedagogy

ZEIGARNIK EFFECT (work in progress effect)- - a phenomenon that a person remembers incomplete actions better ... Modern educational process: basic concepts and terms

- (1900-1988) Russian psychologist. Working at the school of K. Levin, she revealed the dependence of the productivity of memorization on the dynamics of the needs of the subject (“completeness” of actions), which became known in psychology as the “Z effect.” In the future, developing ... ...

ZEIGARNIK Bluma Vulfovna- (1900 1988) Russian psychologist. Doctor psychological sciences. Professor (1967). Laureate of the Lomonosov Prize (1978) and the Kurt Lewin International Prize (1983). Shortly after graduating from high school, she went to study in Germany. During… … Sociology: Encyclopedia

Zeigarnik- Zeigarnik, Bluma Vulfovna Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik Date of birth: November 9, 1900 (1900 11 09) Place of birth: Preny, Kovno province Date of death: February 24, 1988 (1988 02 24 ... Wikipedia

Zeigarnik effect- The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological effect, which consists in the fact that a person remembers material associated with any unfinished actions better than with completed ones. From the point of view of Kurt Lewin's Field Theory, this is due to the fact that ... ... Wikipedia

- (Zeigarnik effect) a phenomenon that characterizes the impact on memory processes of interruptions in activity. It was established by B. V. Zeigarnik, who tested the hypothesis of K. Levin that interrupted tasks are remembered due to the persisted motivational tension ... ... Great Psychological Encyclopedia