Experiment-3

Zeigarnik Effect

AIM-: To assess the influence of Zeigarnik effect on recall of tasks.

INTRODUCTION-:

ZEIGARNIK EFFECT
 The Zeigarnik effect in gestalt psychology, has been used to demonstrate the general
presence of gestalt phenomenon not just appearing as perceptual effects, but also present
in cognition. The Zeigarnik effect is based on the idea that it is human nature to finish what
we start and, if we don’t finish something, we experience dissonance, resulting in an
uncomfortable feeling. The consequence is that we remember uncompleted tasks more than
the tasks already completed and are often driven by this effect to complete something.

HISTORY of ZEIGARNIK EFFECT

 Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik made note of this cognitive bias as noted by her
professor Kurt Howin in a restaurant. She observed that waiters could remember complex
food orders but once the table had received their food and paid their bill, all details would
be forgotten. Orders of those tables that were still ‘incomplete’ would be readily and easily
called to mind whereas those of the ‘completed’ tables where no longer in their memories.
Once a table was completely taken care of then, the details pertaining to that table would be
‘classed’ as complete in the waiter’s mind and effectively erased from their memory in order
to make way for new or still relevant information.
 In 1927, Zeigarnik decided to test her hypothesis in an experimental setting and published
her findings in “On Finished and Unfinished Tasks”. In the experiment, she asked each
participant to complete a series of separate tasks. During around half the assignments, the
participants were subtly interrupted by the experiment supervisor, whilst during the
remaining tasks, they were allowed time to complete them uninterrupted. After this, she
interviewed each participant and was surprised when Rewin’s initial observation of the
effect of interruption on waiter’s memory retention was confirmed. The findings revealed
that participants were able to recall 90% better (approximately) the details of interrupted
tasks. Thereby revealing that the desire to complete a task can cause it to be retained in a
person’s memory until it has been completed and that the finality of its completion enables
the process of forgetting it to take place.
 This supports our understanding of memory function, in that the active rehearsal of
information enables its retention, whilst the information that isn’t rehearsed is more likely
to be discarded. This feature of memory rehearsal is key, for example, to Baddeley and
Hitch’s Working Memory Model. This effect has implications for the techniques that we
might use to learn and to recall important pieces of information.

APPLICATIONS OF THE ZEIGARNIK EFFECT

The Zeigarnik effect is employed in many aspects of modern culture. It may differ slightly by
industry, but the underlying principles remain the same:

 Initiate or draw attention to an interest-arousing event.

 Allow people to participate in some way.
  Terminate the event prematurely to create cognitive tension.
 Invite participants to return for the resolution.

Common applications of the concept include:

 Generating effective headlines or teasers in the news industry

 Creating attention-grabbing trailers in the movie industry
 Using cliff-hangers in the production of serialized books or television shows
 Designing multiple and interrelated quests in the gaming industry
 Creating click-inducing ads to promote online sales

REVIEW OF LITERATURE-:

The present study given by Reeve et.al., (1986) focused on delineating the parameters under which
intrinsic motivation leads an individual to reengage an activity from those that result in the Zeigarnik
effect. In a post task free-choice period, participants not completing the experimental task displayed
more reengagement behaviour than participants completing the task (the Zeigarnik effect). When
participants were also provided self-efficacious performance feedback via a prearranged competitive
outcome manipulation, there was no evidence of the Zeigarnik effect, while there was support for
intrinsic motivation from competent self-efficacious performance feedback. Results were discussed
in terms of distinguishing between intrinsic motivation and the Zeigarnik effect as sources of
reengagement motivation. It was concluded that, in the presence of self-efficacious performance
feedback, the competent-incompetent impression was more salient than task-completion feedback.

This paper given by Hammadi and Qureishi (2013) studies the to see the relationship between the
Zeigarnik Effect and the consumer attention in advertisements. In this test an inventory of 20 ads
were shown to 204 respondents, the collection consisted of 10 ads which had the Zeigarnik effect
and 10 filler ads. The slide show was timed for about 3- 4 seconds per ad after the ads were shown
to the respondents they were requested to fill in a questionnaire pointing out the number of ads
they remembered from the ads shown and sampling technique which was used was restricted non-
profitable sampling. The was collected with the aid of a questionnaire and a slide show which
consisted of 20 ads out of which 10 ads had the Zeigarnik effect and remaining 10 were normal ads.
The results indicated that there is a positive correlation among the ads containing the Zeigarnik
effect and Consumer attention. Consumers tend to pay attention to things that appear novel, in this
case ads with the Zeigarnik effect. Zeigarnik effect states that people tend to remember incomplete
tasks better than completed tasks. The aspect of curiosity keeps the viewer glued to the situation.
From the inventory of ads shown to the respondents, they were able to remember ads with the
Zeigarnik effect better than normal ads. Furthermore, our second hypothesis revealed that females
have a better memory span; they have higher retention and recall capacity over males. Hence,
signifying the fact that gender has an impact on the Zeigarnik effect and consumer attention.

Shi et. al., (2019) worked on Task Completeness and Task Difficulty Affect Undergraduates' Task
Recall. Their study attempted to investigate the effect of task difficulty on the Zeigarnik effect. A
total of 88 undergraduate students were required to finish memorial logical problems to testify the
effect of task difficulty and task completeness on task recall. Participants revealed a better memory
of the interrupted tasks than of the completed tasks (p = 0.045 & lt; 0.05), and a better memory of
the difficult tasks than of the simple tasks (p = 0.002 < 0.05). A marginal interaction effect on recall
was found between task difficulty and task completeness (p = 0.058 > 0.05)

Hypothesis:

Respondents will remember incomplete/interrupted tasks more as compared to complete tasks.

Description of the test-:

This test assesses the influence of Zeigarnik effect on recall of tasks. As a part of the test, the subject
is to be presented with 10 time bound tasks. Time taken and responses of the subject are to be
noted down carefully. The subject will be able to complete some tasks, and some will be left
incomplete. After a day’s break, the recall will be taken by asking the subjects to recall the name of
the tasks they had attempted the previous day. Then, these responses are also to be noted down.
The influence of Zeigarnik effect on the recall of tasks is confirmed only if the subject is able to recall
incomplete/ interrupted tasks more as compared to complete tasks.

METHOD-:

Subject Preliminaries-:

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Educational Qualification:

Materials Required:

One set of different tasks, pen, pencil, stopwatch, plain sheet.

Variables:

Independent Variable: Nature of the task.

Dependent Variable: Recall.

Instructions:

I will give you one set which consists of 10 different tasks. When I say start, you have to start and
when I say stop, you have to stop. The tasks are time bound, so, complete as fast as you can.

Precautions:

Before the conduction of the experiment, it was ensured that the lighting facility in the lab was
proper. Tasks were presented in a proper manner to avoid the chance of being fatigued and
repetitiveness. It was made sure that there was no background noise to avoid unwanted
distractions.

Procedure:

The subject was made to sit in a quiet and comfortable lab. Rapport has been established with the
subject by convincing them that their responses will be kept confidential. Then, the instructions
were given to the subject. One by one, each task has been attempted by the subject, keeping in
mind tasks are time bound. Time taken and the responses of the subject were noted down very
carefully. Next day, the recall was taken by asking the subjects to recall the name of the tasks he/she
had attempted the previous day. Then, the responses were noted down. While the subject is writing
the introspective report of his experience, the experimenter is writing the observational report.

Introspective Report-:

I enjoyed the experiment thoroughly, it was a fun experience. I was bit frustrated when I wasn’t able
to complete some task but all over it was a fun experiment.

Observational Report-:

Throughout the experiment it was observed that the subject was focused throughout the
experiment and as bit frigidity when he was not able to complete some tasks.

Results-:

S.No Name of Recalled Tasks Name of Recalled Tasks

Completed Tasks Incomplete Tasks
1 Spot the  Number Wheel 
difference
2 Word search  Riddles 
3 Maze Cost Chicks × Replace the 
question mark
4 Time Table  Ditloid Puzzle 
5 Word × Coin Triangle ×
Construction
Total Recalled 3 Total Recalled 4

Calculations-:

Percentage remembrance of complete tasks-:

Tasks= (Recalled Tasks/ No. of tasks) *100

i.e. (3/10) *100 = 30%

Percentage remembrance of complete tasks-:

Tasks= (Recalled Tasks/ No. of tasks) *100

i.e. (4/10) *100 = 40%

Discussion-:

The purpose of this experiment was to assess the influence of Zeigarnik Effect on recall of tasks. The
hypothesis of the experiment was that respondents will remember the incomplete/ interrupted
tasks more as compared to complete tasks. The subject was called, and a rapport was established.
Then, the instructions were given to the subject. One by one, each of the ten task were conducted
and it was analysed through the results that number of complete task recalled was 3 and incomplete
was 4. Hence the calculations show 30% of remembrance in complete tasks and 40% of
remembrance in incomplete tasks. Hence proving the hypothesis of this experiment that the subject
recalled the incomplete task more than the complete task.

Conclusion-:

So to conclude the calculations show 30% of remembrance in complete tasks and 40% of
remembrance in incomplete tasks. Hence proving the hypothesis of this experiment that the subject
recalled the incomplete task more than the complete task.

References-:

 Reeve, J., Cole, S. G., & Olson, B. C. (1986). The Zeigarnik effect and intrinsic

motivation: Are they the same? Motivation and Emotion, 10(3), 233–245.

https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00992318

 Shi, W., Ma, J., Wang, W. & Yang, Z. (2019). Tasks Completeness and Task Difficulty

Affect Undergraduates' Task Recall. International Journal of Intelligent

Technologies & Applied Statistics, 12(3), 333-344.

 Hammadi, A., & Qureishi, F. (2013, July 4). Relationship between the Zeigarnik

Effect and Consumer Attention in Advertisement - PDF Free Download. Wikipidea.

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