The Zeigarnik effect explains that we feel discomfort and dissonance when we do not finish what we start

1. Zeigarnik Effect
January 19th, 2019
pen Loops

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Zeigarnik Effect

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Zeigarnik Effect
In psychology, the
Zeigarnik effect
states that people
remember
uncompleted or
interrupted tasks
better than
completed tasks.

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Zeigarnik Effect
In psychology, the
Zeigarnik effect
states that people
remember
uncompleted 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 present in
cognition.

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The Backstory
One day in 1927 Bluma Zeigarnik, a
Russian student of psychology at the
University of Berlin, went along with
several classmates and teachers to have
dinner at a restaurant in town.
When the waiter who served them took the
order of all the diners with absolutely
nothing to write in, as he did with the
rest of the tables, she thought it was
going to end badly.
However, after a while the waiter served
everyone exactly what they ordered.

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Demonstrating the Zeigarnik Effect
Once they left the restaurant, Bluma
Zeigarnik realized she had forgotten the
scarf inside. So she went back inside
and asked the waiter with the amazing
memory if he had seen it.
The waiter didn’t remember her, much
less he remembered where she had sat.
“How is it possible that you do not
remember me with such a good memory?”
asked Bluma.

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The Open Loop aka The “Cliffhanger”
Will Bluma Zeigarnik
find her scarf ?
And will Bluma find
true love??

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The Open Loop
The answer to these
questions revealed in
our next exciting
episode

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“I just keep the orders in
my mind until they are
served,” replied the
waiter.
Waiter’s Memory was a function of an open loop

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Along with her mentor Kurt
Lewing, she made a series of
experiments that showed that
we all function more or less
like that waiter.
Zeigarnik decided to study this strange behavior

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Our brain retains the
unfinished tasks that are
constantly drawing the
attention of our
consciousness… and…
Our brain wants to close an open information loop

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Our brain retains the
unfinished tasks that are
constantly drawing the
attention of our
consciousness… and when we
finish them, the brain
eliminates them.
It is Human Nature to Seek Closure

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We feel discomfort and dissonance
when we do not finish what we start
In Summary and Conclusion

14. IdeoGraphic Creation
John D. Hipsley
jhipsley@igc.org