The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological phenomenon that was discovered in a Berlin cafe. To this day, it is actively used in Gestalt therapy and to increase productivity. By describing the features of psychological processes that develop in the absence of a logical conclusion to a matter, the Bluma Zeigarnik effect helps explain the nature of feelings such as anxiety and guilt.
Have you ever encountered unpleasant feelings in a relationship when the dialogue has already ended, but its development in thoughts continues? Or maybe a difficulty that has long been in the past still inspires fear and haunts you? Such situations in psychology are designated by an incomplete gestalt and are clear examples of the Zeigarnik effect.
Bluma Zeigarnik and her important discovery
The discovery of this interesting effect of unfinished action was made by the Soviet psychologist Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik while still a student. While talking in a cafe with her thesis supervisor, Kurt Lewin, she drew attention to the behavior of one waiter. He served customers without a pen and notepad, which other employees actively used.
Together with her mentor, she called the waiter over and asked him to remember what dishes the visitors at the next table ordered. He easily listed a considerable list, without missing a single item. Then Bluma and Kurt asked him about the order of the visitors who had already paid and left the cafe. And then the waiter could not remember a single dish, although he had previously given the order to the cook absolutely accurately.
The student was very interested in this case. While searching for an explanation for the cafe employee's phenomenal memory and its instantaneous “switching off,” she made an amazing discovery. It turns out that completed and unfinished tasks have different meanings for a person. She developed and studied this idea, which was later recognized by official psychology and named after her - the Bluma Zeigarnik effect.
What is the psychological phenomenon of Zeigarnik?
Briefly speaking about the Zeigarnik effect, it comes down to explaining the influence of an unfinished action on a person’s state. Without completing a task, people cannot calm down and relax. An example would be an important conversation with a spouse that is interrupted by someone in the middle. Lack of agreement leads to tension and uncertainty in relationships. A person cannot relax and switch to other things; thoughts about the conversation constantly pop up in his memory.
Based on his observations, here is what Bluma Zeigarnik writes about this in the book “Patopsychology”: “When an action is not completed, the intention remains unfulfilled, a certain affective activity is created (in the terminology of K. Levin, a “dynamic system”), which manifests itself in a different form activity - in this case in reproduction."
Speaking briefly about how exactly the Zeigarnik effect unfolds, in psychology they denote the following sequence:
- Starting any task creates tension in a person’s memory.
- Tension tends to end, influencing behavior.
- The tension is released as soon as the end of the matter is realized.
By nature, a person is designed in such a way that he feels comfort and a sense of satisfaction only from solving a task and completing the work process. Such a direction as Gestalt psychology talks about this in more detail.
What to remember
- The Zeigarnik effect is the brain's desire to complete unfinished tasks.
- It occurs due to cognitive stress, which constantly returns the task to the brain's working memory.
- Divide the material you are studying into parts and take breaks during the study process - this will help you remember better.
- To beat procrastination, take a small first step. This will trigger the Zeigarnik effect - your brain will strive to finish the job.
- This method is not effective if you are paid for the work and not the result; and in cases where you have too many unfulfilled tasks.
Closed gestalt and its place in the Zeigarnik effect
The discovery of the Zeigarnik effect in psychology became one of the starting points in the formation of the basic principles of well-being in the direction of Gestalt (German: Gestalt - holistic image). They come down to completeness and integrity, which create the basic prerequisites for a sense of personal satisfaction.
The basis for this belief is the peculiarity of the psyche, which consists in the fact that it is capable of translating only completed cases into experience. That is, relaxation occurs only after a completed image of the task or situation is formed. The absence of its logical ending entails the flow of energy in the direction that worries a person. Prolonged leakage and tension cause neurosis and other health problems. This state is referred to among specialists as “open gestalt.”
When the situation reaches its logical conclusion, the tension in the memory, according to the Zeigarnik effect, goes away, making room for pleasant sensations. But you shouldn’t hysterically try to achieve such a result on your own, because sometimes it’s simply impossible to close the gestalt on your own. For example, when a choice in the past has already been made, it is impossible to change it and the resulting consequences that haunt you. In this case, only a specialist will finally help the person, using different methods of completing the image (games and others).
Scientific activity of Blooma Vulfovna
During the Great Patriotic War, after the evacuation from Moscow, Bluma Vulfovna worked at the Kisegach neurosurgical hospital in the Urals and actively participated in the work to restore the mental activity of seriously wounded people. The results of these studies were later published. During this period, her scientific and personal contacts with many prominent psychologists of the country strengthened - A.R. Luria, A.N. Leontyev, A.V. Zaporozhets, S.G. Gellerstein and others. Later, B.V. Zeigarnik recalled them with great warmth and love, noting that at that time, under the influence of communication with psychologists of the Vygotsky school, their idea of pathopsychology was formed as a special field of knowledge.
In the 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, which she created (until 1967). During this period, many outstanding Russian psychiatrists became her scientific partners: M.Ya.Sereysky, S.G.Zhislin, I.G.Ravkin, G.E.Sukhareva, D.E.Melekhov and others. During this period of strong ideological suppression and the increasing physiologicalization of psychiatry (especially after the famous “Pavlovian meetings” of 1950), these doctors of the old medical school not only remained faithful to the best traditions of psychiatry of the past (who could not come up with effective work with the mentally ill without psychology), but also supported defended both Zeigarnik and his “young” laboratory. In particular, she felt reliably protected by Professor D.E. Melekhov, the 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 her on the staff of the Institute (although a decision had already been made to dismiss her). Over the years, she conducted an extensive series of studies, which became the scientific basis of modern psychology.
At the same time, B.V. Zeigarnik began teaching a course in pathopsychology, first at the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, then (since 1966) at the Department of Psychology. Since 1967, she has been a professor at the Faculty of Psychology, where she worked with great passion until the last days of her life. Merits of B.V. Zeigarnik were awarded the Lomonosov Prize of the first degree (1978) and the International Prize named after K.V. Levin (1983). C. International Levin Prize (1983).
Bloom belonged to a generation that had to endure several wars of unprecedented difficulties, the Russian Revolution with all its social consequences, totalitarianism and repression. The wheel of history left deep traces (or rather, wounds) in her destiny. This could not but influence the formation of her personality and her entire worldview. We will never know what she was like in her youth when she worked for K. Levin in Berlin. There are no contemporaries or eyewitnesses. Bluma Vulfovna herself (like many people of her generation), who remember that time, spoke little, sparingly and reluctantly. But those who knew her in the early 1930s, after returning from Germany (A.N. Leontiev, S.Ya. Rubenstein), recalled that she gave the impression of being brilliant (A.N. Leontiev’s word), cheerful and talented person.
Was her own human potential fully realized? We think not. The difficult struggle for survival (sometimes literally), of course, limited the opportunities for self-realization. However, Bluma Wolfovna retained her unique human personality.
What is the secret of B.V.’s personality? Zeigarnik as a special psychological phenomenon? Here are some notes on her portrait.
In preparing this publication, we turned to many people who knew her with the question: “What do you think was central to Bluma Vulfovna’s personality? The most common answers we heard were “wisdom,” “knowledge of human nature,” and “will.”
Everyone who knew B.V. Zeigarnik, unanimously argue that she was a gifted person, an outstanding person, for whom decency was the main criterion in the judgment of people.
Experimental study of the Zeigarnik effect
To confirm or refute the discovered phenomenon, Blum, together with his fellow student Maria Ovsyankina, organized a special experiment. During the test, the subjects were given various intellectual tasks. These included puzzles, arithmetic, clay modeling and building buildings from cardboard boxes.
During the experiment, the subjects were periodically interrupted, not allowing them to complete some task. They were told that the time to complete it had run out and were encouraged to move on to the next one. After completing the experiment, participants were asked to recall and describe the problems that needed to be solved. In 90% of cases, the tasks that were voiced were those that were not completed by the subjects. This confirmed Zeigarnik’s assumption that unfinished business receives a special status in our minds and cannot be completely forgotten until the moment of completion.
When does it appear?
People who experience psychological problems as adults have suffered some kind of trauma or still hold grudges from childhood. They cannot let go and forgive the offender. Unpleasant memories sit in your head and do not allow you to move on - the gestalt is open. As soon as a person understands his internal state, emotional release and relief will come.
A person in love can also experience the effect. For example, once a guy and a girl loved each other, but circumstances played a cruel joke, and one of them had to leave or simply break off the relationship. The one who experienced strong feelings will remember the other even after 10-20 years. Their relationship did not end, but was interrupted, so the gestalt is not closed.
Zeigarnik decided to take into account additional factors that play an important role in the classic experiment: social, personal, motivational, and so on. For example, a tense atmosphere during problem solving has a beneficial effect on the memorability of the problem. Accordingly, if the atmosphere is relaxed, then the interrupted task will leave a less noticeable trace in the memory. Considering the characteristics of the cognitive function of the brain, you can use this effect to your advantage. The main thing is to know how to use it correctly.
How is the Zeigarnik effect used today?
This psychological phenomenon is successfully used by modern media and advertising agencies. It is on this that the desire to watch series to the end is based. Moreover, even in situations where the plot does not particularly correspond to a person’s personal interests, the desire to build a holistic image of what is happening in the mind pushes one to watch the next series.
By skillfully playing on the importance of unfinished business, marketers lead us to the transition on the Internet to the desired page offering a service or product. For example, they create a banner with an ad that breaks at the most interesting point. It is often difficult to resist reading a sentence to the end.
In personal life, this effect also finds its place in the development of relationships. For example, when, after meeting, interested lovers are forced to abruptly separate, they often cannot forget each other for a long time. The feelings that flared up in them found neither confirmation nor disappointment. They hung in the mind with a certain uncertainty that did not allow one to calm down and leave thoughts about the other person in the past.
Creation of scientific foundations of pathopsychology
Her whole life was subordinated to the idea of creating the scientific foundations of a new field of knowledge - pathopsychology. She devoted all her creativity, energy and intelligence to defending (often in discussions with other psychiatrists) the professional autonomy of this field of science and practice.
As a harmoniously inclined person, she was always cautious and suspicious of any “creation” in human development, any excess, any distortion. In everyday life and in professional cooperation, she tried to avoid people with personality flaws, disharmony, emotional “inconsistency,” that is, with what psychologists call an inferiority complex.
Great goals in life can only be realized by a person with a strong, pronounced character. Bluma Vulfovna had such a character - a small woman with an infectious laugh, a young (until her last days) voice and a unique expressiveness of intonation. In this regard, I remember her handshake: with her small hand she “took away” her partner’s hand - not rudely, but firmly and powerfully. This feeling seems to be remembered by many. She didn't like it when her partner didn't respond to her handshake, i.e. held her hand like a fish (B.V.’s expression). And it opened her eyes to a lot of people. An attentive partner could tell a lot about the character of Bluma Volfovich herself in a handshake. The difficulties of life seemed to have hardened her. She has not lost either optimism, faith in people, or thirst for knowledge, especially about humanity. Now, looking back, she was amazed at the integrity of her nature, her loyalty to the principles of life.
Her early interest in personality, intelligence, observation, intuition, combined with the high professionalism of a clinical psychologist, made B.V. Zeigarnik is an insightful person who understands the essence of another person from the first glance at him.
Knowing this ability, she was often asked to simply look at or talk to a person and give her opinion about him. Her assessments were always succinct and usually confirmed later. She herself, being benevolent, sometimes changed her initial assessments (for example, softened them), and in some cases remarked: “And yet the first point of view is the most accurate.”
Following the doctors of the past, for whom everything was important when assessing a person: gait, speech, gaze, handshake, etc., B.V. Zeigarnik also considered all these external manifestations important, knew how to see and evaluate them, and create a psychological portrait of a person. She used them to train psychology students, young professionals, and her colleagues.
Attention to people, the desire to understand people was one of the most important (perhaps the most important) qualities of Bluma Vulfovna as a person. Most likely, this quality became the basis of her long psychological youth. “I like working with students, with young people,” she often said in the last years of her life. She studied them carefully and with interest, and was interested in the young people. The students responded to her with sincere love. On one of the last anniversaries, they dedicated playful, naive poems to Bluma Volfovna, as well as well-wishers, starting with the words: “B.V. Zeigarnik - you are our flower, we truly love you.”
Interest in the inner world of a person (both healthy and sick), apparently, made her take a drug once in her youth - “an experiment for the sake of experiment.” She said that it is interesting to experience what people feel when they are mentally ill: Hallucinations, changes in perception of themselves and the world around them. B.V. Zeigarnik wrote down all her experiences, apparently with interesting comments and interpretations. However, these records were confiscated from her during the arrest of her husband along with other materials and disappeared in the KGB.
Books about the Zeigarnik effect
More information about the manifestation of this psychological phenomenon in life, as well as about research around it, can be found in the relevant literature:
- Bluma Zeigarnik "Patopsychology".
- Sergey Stepanov “Living psychology. Lessons from famous experiments."
- John Goth.
- Rolf Dobelli “Territory of Delusions. What mistakes do smart people make?
