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Zeigarnik Effect
The Zeigarnik Effect is the power of unfinished business or interrupted or uncompleted activity to hold a privileged place in memory. Unfinished tasks create a cognitive burden, weigh more heavily on the mind, and are more easily recalled than completed tasks.
The Zeigarnik Effect explains why people are haunted by unfulfilled goals and may be more apt to recall what they haven’t achieved than what they have. Some have speculated that the cognitive burden of unfinished work causes some to see themselves negatively and contributes to such problems as impostor syndrome.
Research has also established that unfulfilled goals can create intrusive thoughts when doing unrelated tasks and lead to poor performance of those tasks. However, creating specific plans for the unfulfilled goals eliminates the interference. Drafting and committing to a completion plan, researchers say, releases the cognitive burden and frees cognitive resources for other pursuits. Score 1 for to-do lists.
The Zeigarnik Effects may explain the power of unprocessed negative events to undermine intimate relationships. Such events may be preferentially remembered and mentally replayed until they undermine trust and put partners on a downward cascading path of suspicion and hostility.
The effect was first described by Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927. She was inspired to study the phenomenon after her professor, prominent psychologist Kurt Lewin, noticed that a waiter could remember in detail restaurant orders that had not yet been paid but could not remember the details of the orders once everyone had paid.
After designing experiments to observe the effect and explore the mental components, Zeigarnik found that an uncompleted task creates tension that makes its elements cognitively accessible until the task is discharged. Her experiments involved the assigning of tasks to study participants and, under controlled conditions, interrupting them at the halfway point or allowing them to complete the tasks undisturbed, then, an hour later, asking the participants to recall the details of their tasks.
The Zeigarnik Effect can be harnessed to boost recall. If you are trying to learn or memorize a body of facts, take time out in the middle of the task to focus on some other activity. Then, return to the learning task. Taking short breaks—of a few minutes to one hour—during a series of study sessions improves learning.
Yes. Taking the first step on a project, no matter how small, can create enough tension when the task is interrupted to motivate the resumption of the task.
The Zeigarnik Effect makes a powerful case against multitasking. Focusing on one task at a time will avert intrusive thoughts of unfinished work that will only create delays in finishing all the tasks. Completion of each task approached sequentially instead of simultaneously will clear mental space for the next task.
