In psychology there are such patterns, the presence of which brings the shaky field of knowledge about the soul closer to more precise sciences. There are experimental data that have been repeatedly confirmed on a variety of people. I think this is useful for everyone to know. The Zeigarnik effect, or the phenomenon of unfinished actions, is for me in the forefront of such practical knowledge.

In 1927, Bluma Vulfovna Zeigarnik defended her thesis in Berlin under the guidance of Kurt Lewin on the topic “On the memorization of completed and unfinished actions.” Experimentally, she found that unfinished actions are remembered almost 1.9 times better than completed ones.

Briefly about her
Born in 1900 in the Russian Empire, she got married in 1919, left with her husband for Germany in 1921, studied at the epicenter of the development of psychology at the University of Berlin in 1924, and returned to the Soviet Union in 1931. The Jewish husband was shot before the Great Patriotic War. She raised two sons herself, one of whom was born after his father’s arrest. She developed the foundations of a new field of knowledge at the intersection of psychology and psychiatry - pathopsychology.

About the history of her discovery, Bluma Vulfovna recalled that Kurt Lewin, who was a little older than the group of his students, was informal, lively in his communication, and captivated his students with a “search game” in which he observed and explored everyday situations. For example, their seminars were sometimes held in cafes, and it was Levin who was the first to pay attention to the phenomenon of better memorization of unfinished actions. He asked the waiter to name without peeping what this or that visitor ordered. The waiter remembered each customer's order in full. When asked about the orders of those who had just left the cafe, he could not answer at all. “They’ve already paid,” was his answer.

Experiment

In what form did Bluma Zeigarnik decide to test the hypothesis about the influence of completeness on memorization?
The subjects were given a variety of tasks with a limited time for each, were randomly interrupted (saying that the time for the task had run out), and then asked to remember which tasks they were. Not only were the unfinished ones remembered better, but the subjects tried to at least somehow complete them. This phenomenon was called the Zeigarnik effect.

At the University, we also conducted such an experiment as part of a workshop. I was then amazed that my subject, whose task I had interrupted to sign all the sheets, after finishing the work, involuntarily sat and put his signatures on all the sheets. It was not “Last Name of I.O.”, but only a signature, but the unrealized need sought to be embodied in at least this form. When I asked why he was doing this, the answer was: “It’s just like that. I wanted to." This is how the need not only remained, but also went into the unconscious. I wonder how many of us have such charged aspirations?

conclusions

There are many useful conclusions from Zeigarnik’s discovery that will be useful in our daily affairs. Bluma Vulfovna has nothing to do with these conclusions. It was I who collected ways to use her discovery and summarized my experience in counseling and leading groups. You can add your own.

1. Finishing what you started

Unfinished tasks “hang” in our memory. When there are too many such things, our processor freezes and requires a reboot, that is, reset. In such cases, we begin to forget what we promised, we become inattentive to what is happening, because mental resources are wasted on previous tasks.

This means that it makes sense not to multiply the amount of unfinished work, but to complete what has been started. “Closing the gestalt” is an expression we often hear here and there about something unfulfilled. This is what is worth doing.
Yesterday, at a session with an osteopath, my body experienced the following image: when the doctor lightly touched the tips of my fingers, I felt like the nervous circuit was closing. As if this touch was once important to me, but it was not completed, and the whole system was in tension.

Important! In my experience (Zeigarnik didn’t say anything about this), if what you started has lost its relevance—let’s say you decide not to finish reading the book—it makes sense to complete this process, at least symbolically. Let go.

2. The desire to close the relationship

This is how not only things hang, but also unfinished relationships. Sometimes we are not even aware of them, but remain “loaded” to our list of tasks. A promised visit to mom, an intention to go to a play with a child, an understatement in a conflict at work, a forgotten desire to go on a long trip with friends, ruined joint plans with loved ones... Ellipsis... This is the sign that stands in the topics that await continuation. It’s as if we promised them “to be continued,” “to be continued.”

The conclusion about the influence of unfinished relationships on all subsequent ones, until the previous ones are closed, suggests itself. My psychological practice also confirms the correctness of this hypothesis. Of course, B.V. Zeigarnik did not mean this, and it is difficult to verify this experimentally. However, it is precisely such phenomena that psychotherapeutic practice often reveals. The first relationship of any person is the relationship in the parental family. Associations lead to them in one way or another, even when the person seeking help from a psychologist came to talk about other topics - about a husband or a child, or work.

“Am I already sinful in that I myself
Got a slightly bitter smell of vengeance
And all your non-returns
Signed according to the same scheme?
And life is like a miserable cockatoo
She stated the same thing:
“My darling, wait for me, my darling!
And I will come, I will come, I will come.”

Ivasi

In order to see, hear, feel everything that strives for completion, you should first of all pay attention to inadequate situations of feeling. Such feelings that seem to relate not to the current situation, but to something else. Having discovered such a feeling, no matter how strong, amazing, scary it may be, it is important to stay with it, give yourself and it time to live. I often use breathing and meditation practices for this, as well as spiritual conversation. What do you do with such experiences?

3. Attention to exciting new needs

In the early 1970s, J. Heimback of the Nationwide Research Center and J. Jacoby of Purdue University studied the possibilities of using the Zeigarnik effect in advertising. Interruption in experiments showed a positive effect on engagement and brand recall. Everywhere in the advertising and media sphere they are now using the findings from their research:
1) intrigue from the first seconds
So that when a person refuses to watch, a feeling of incompleteness arises;
2) understatement
To be remembered better.

This means that you should be attentive to such “hooks” so as not to waste time and not get involved. And this is facilitated by remembering your priorities.
To avoid the need to complete, it is better to carefully choose what to start.

4. Using the Zeigarnik effect for the right things

Knowing about the Zeigarnik phenomenon, we can make it easier for ourselves to complete some things. As the shortest guide for beginners says: “Get started!” If you have no doubt that this is exactly what you need, then it’s better to start right away. It will be much easier to return to what you started when you have already taken several steps towards your goal. The Zeigarnik effect will help you with this and keep you motivated.
According to Kurt Lewin's field theory, we experience needs associated with the field - if we see a mirror, we want to look into it, if there is a bell, then we want to ring it, etc. By starting to perform new tasks, it is as if we are sowing this field with seeds that we will be drawn to return to again.

And how are you? Tell us about your experience of unfinished and completed cases.

Sometimes we have to leave one or another action unfinished due to various reasons. Well, then we can suffer at night, and this unfinished task will remind itself again and again with annoying thoughts, even if this is the very task and there is no need to finish it to the end for one reason or another. This does not at all indicate our high degree of conscientiousness or anything like that. The thing is that in the theory of modern Gestalt psychology there is such a concept 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 college.

It was only while attending lectures that she became thoroughly interested in the various processes that manifest themselves in human behavior in the event of a particular disorder.

It is surprising that the phenomenon, which would later be given the name “Zeigarnik Effect in Psychology” and which would glorify Bluma Volfovna, became the object of study in the doctor’s works back in her student years and was the main topic of her thesis. Of course, throughout her life, Mrs. Zeigarnik made many discoveries, working as an assistant to L. S. Vygotsky in the psychoneurological clinic at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. However, her first work, studied and revealed to the world at a 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 Mrs. Doctor during her student years. It was the 20s of the twentieth century, and young Bluma at that time was undergoing an internship with the luminary of pathopsychology. One day, the great doctor and scientist decided to visit one of the usual crowded German cafes, inviting his trainee Zeigarnik there. The effect of unfinished action, as one of the laws of Gestalt psychology, arose in the student’s head on that very day, and this happened for the following reasons.

When the waiter arrived, he did not write down a single word from the announced list of the visitors’ orders, 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 the waiter’s extremely good memory. However, he said he never writes anything down. Then Zeigarnik asked the waiter to name what the people at the tables he served earlier had ordered, and he could not fully remember the order, citing the crowded cafe.

First tests to confirm the phenomenon

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

A certain group of people participated in the experimental activities and were given a goal in solving intellectual problems. At the same time, some people managed to solve the problem completely, but others were interrupted, not giving the opportunity to complete the task. As a result, a few days later, the experimental 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 another way - the effect of an unfinished action.

The Zeigarnik Effect, or How to Use the Completion Principle

Every psychological phenomenon has its practical application in everyday life, so often each of us suffers from the effect of an unfinished action, tormenting ourselves with unwanted memories of a particular incident.

Nobody likes uncertainty. But in the modern world, many advertisers and marketers use the effect of unfinished action to promote products on web pages, and simply in television advertising.

How it works? When it comes to advertising on web pages, often only key phrases addressing the consumer are placed on 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. In this case, the received data will be assimilated much better, since the principle of completion took place.

And now you ask: why are some television advertisements constantly revolving in the memory? And we will answer you: precisely for the same reason for the effect of incompleteness. Often, requests from producers come to us from the screens, some kind of dialogue with the viewer, which necessarily contains a question, which, in fact, is most remembered.

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 selecting various psychological effects as justification. The Zeigarnik effect can explain a lot of suffering in failed relationships, especially if there was no obvious separation and division of property between partners.

Therefore, it is strongly recommended not to break up with ex-lovers over the 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 person’s subconscious, not letting go of the image of the 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 becomes weaned from a loved one, there must be a fact of separation during a personal meeting. Otherwise, such a “silent” breakup can have a painful effect on 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 ruining your life? Let's try to figure it out.

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

• if you feel constant anxiety, despite a coherent life, good job and family;
• if your personal life does not work out again and again for reasons unknown to you;
• if you often come up with the continuation of certain words of your interlocutor;
• if you feel that you are increasingly stepping on the same rake.

The above symptoms are not at all signs of ordinary failures in life. 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 realize for yourself that a lot of time has passed, and it’s time to let go of the situation, there is no need to justify or feel sorry for anyone. You'll see - life will become easier. Just let go.

Human life can be easily explained and scientifically substantiated. Have there been times when you were tormented by the same situation, only because one day you did not know how to behave and simply preferred to avoid it? Or were you unable to resolve the conflict with your partner and now in every new relationship you “bump into” a similar problem? There is the Zeigarnik effect, which means that a person remembers tasks better if at some point there is an interruption in actions and they remain unfinished. Those that were successfully implemented disappear into the depths of memory and become so irrelevant that we may well forget about them completely. Our psyche requires completeness, therefore, what we have not been able to cope with will continue to haunt us until we manage to understand at least a little and “cover up” the issue.

History of origin

This effect was discovered by Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik. She was the founder of Russian pathopsychology and did a lot for the development of psychology, being a professor and doctor of psychological sciences. When she was approximately 24 years old, Bluma attended Kurt Lewin's courses. During this period, he studied the motives that push a person to commit any action. After classes ended, he liked to spend his free time informally with his students. Not just to communicate, but for the benefit of science.

For example, they often played a “search game”, during which the girl made a discovery, which made a significant contribution to the development of science. Kurt decided to ask the waiter to list the dishes ordered by a group of people at the next table. Despite the large number of positions, the employee remembered everything. But I couldn’t name a small order from those who had already paid. Explaining this by saying that there was simply no need to retain in memory information that was no longer relevant. The clients paid, after all, what's the point of remembering what exactly they ate and drank?

Experiment

A group of subjects was asked to perform various actions, the total number of which was approximately 22 tasks. They were simple and touched on almost all the skills and abilities of the individual. Let's say you had to put beads on a string, come up with a poem, cut out and make a box out of paper, multiply three-digit numbers in your head, or show your artistic abilities by drawing a vase.

The instructions stated that it was necessary to complete the tasks as quickly as possible and without errors. But the completion process was always disrupted by the experimenter. Most often precisely in moments of complete concentration on work. He simply suggested moving on to the next task. And when asked about what to do with those that we didn’t have time to finish, he pretended not to hear anything. Why did the participants not have a clear picture of what was happening? But then he still allowed us to return to what we didn’t have time to do in order to complete what we started.

At the end of the test, everyone was asked to list which tasks they performed. And what do you think? About 90% of the subjects remembered exactly those that could not be completed the first time. The rest, done without barriers or intervention, were simply repressed from memory.

Explanation of the phenomenon

Zeigranik herself explained the occurrence of this phenomenon due to motivating factors. That is, the personality is overcome by the need to complete what has been started. Moreover, motivation can differ significantly for everyone. For example, some people agreed to the experiment in order to test their capabilities and get to know themselves better. Part - to help science, at least somehow coming into contact with its development. And someone just wanted to have fun and decided to participate, simply relying on their passion.

There are a lot of reasons that can be given, but in any case, each participant had a motive according to which he completed the tasks and reached the end. At the moment of interruption of activity, it turned out that his intention, according to which he gave all his best, turned out to be unfulfilled. This creates tension, which is completely justified. So much effort has been put in and all in vain. It is then that such an intention remains in memory in order to find an opportunity to be realized in the future.

Kurt Lewin called such an intention a quasi need, that is, different from a true need, being, as it were, secondary. Its purpose is to relieve the resulting tension of incompleteness. Why will a person unconsciously reproduce similar situations in life until he manages to discharge himself. It was for this reason that the subjects voluntarily returned to the task at which they were interrupted if there was a short break between tasks.

Rosenzweig's study

Saul Rosenzweig conducted an interesting experiment. His results turned out to be slightly different from those obtained by Bluma. He made changes to the testing procedure, telling participants that the experiment was aimed at studying their mental abilities. This completely changed the situation. Since now the subjects have replaced tasks that they could not, or did not have time to cope with. They remembered only those that they managed to complete successfully. Nobody wanted to admit that they were stupid, excessively slow and incapable of complex intellectual work.

Nuances of the phenomenon

In 2006, scientists in Mississippi conducted an experiment similar to what Zeigarnik came up with. Only the task was a little different. Experimenters studied the effect of reward anticipation on job performance. It turned out that the effect loses its strength under additional conditions. The subjects were divided into two groups. The first was told that they would definitely pay for their work, but the second was not promised anything. After they were not allowed to finish the task, but were given a new one, during the break, 86% of the participants who did not expect money chose to return and finish what they started. While 58% of the subjects who were waiting for payment were satisfied with what they managed to do.

This effect can be used for your own benefit. After all, as they say: “Forewarned is forearmed.” At least in the media, the consciousness of the population has long been manipulated with the help of unfinished actions. Remember any TV series. Each episode usually ends at the most interesting moment, causing an urgent need to see what happens next as quickly as possible.

So why not increase your own productivity by knowing this trick? It’s worth at least starting the work, moving it further away, if there is one. And then switch to another project as a rest. Or just take a break. Your subconscious will not give you the opportunity to avoid your fate and will constantly remind you of what you could not complete.

“Empty chair” technique

In love, everything is a little more complicated; if you can’t clarify your relationship with someone significant, this can cause a lot of anxiety. Which will negatively affect both self-esteem and health in general. But what to do if your ex-partner doesn’t make contact, or if so much time has passed since then that you don’t even know where to look for him? Or, in the worst case, what if he is no longer alive? There is an “empty chair” technique. It is advisable, of course, to do it in the presence of a psychotherapist, but you can try it yourself.

You should place a chair in front of you, on which to imagine the image of a significant person. And act depending on the stopped unfulfilled need. You can talk about your feelings and in general about what you can’t say in reality for some reason. On the contrary, you can ask a question and listen to your feelings in order to understand what really happened to your partner, that he behaved this way.

Be attentive to what is happening, to your every thought, emotion, notice what is happening to your body. Try to put an end to it by apologizing or excusing him. Allow yourself to free yourself from accumulated anxiety and incompleteness of the process. Sit for a couple of minutes, returning to yourself in the moment here and now, letting go of the situation.

Completion

Bluma’s work turned out to be fundamental, serving as the basis for the formation of one of the principles of Gestalt - completeness, integrity. This term is often used in psychology, and almost every direction of psychotherapy strives to help the individual realize the moments that were interrupted in order to relieve tension and finally finish what was started. So, be aware of your gestalts, close them and be happy!

The material was prepared by psychologist, Gestalt therapist, Alina Zhuravina

ZEYGARNIK EFFECT

(English) Zeigarnik effect) - a mnemonic effect consisting of depending on the effectiveness memorization material (actions) on the degree of completeness of the 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 remembers better an action that remains unfinished. This is explained by the tension that arises at the beginning of each action, but does not receive a release unless the action ends. The effect of preferential retention of interrupted, unfinished activity in involuntary memory is used in pedagogy and art.

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

Zeigarnik effect

   ZEYGARNIK EFFECT (With. 245)

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

In those years, Zeigarnik interned in Berlin with the famous psychologist Kurt Lewin. One day she and her teacher went into a crowded cafe. Her attention was drawn to the fact that the waiter, having accepted the order, did not write down anything, although the list of ordered dishes was extensive, and brought everything to the table without forgetting anything. When remarked about his amazing memory, he shrugged, saying that he never writes down and never forgets. Then the psychologists asked him to say what the visitors he had served before them and who had just left the cafe had chosen from the menu. The waiter was confused and admitted that he could not remember their order in any detail. 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 subjects to solve intellectual problems in a limited time. She determined the solution time arbitrarily, so she could allow the subject to find a solution or at any moment declare that the time had expired and the problem had not been solved.

After several days, the subjects were asked to recall the conditions of the problems that were offered to them for solution.

It turned out that if the solution to a problem is interrupted, it is remembered better compared to problems that were successfully solved. The number of remembered interrupted tasks is approximately twice as large as the number of remembered completed tasks. This pattern is called the “Zeigarnik effect.” It can be assumed that a certain level of emotional stress, which did not receive a release under conditions of incomplete action, contributes to its preservation in memory.

An interesting improvement on this experiment is due to Paul Fresse. He asked subjects twenty problems, but only allowed them to solve ten, and then asked how many problems the subject thought he had solved. It turned out that people who are self-confident and success-oriented tend to somewhat exaggerate their achievements and believe that they have successfully completed most tasks. Those whose self-esteem is low tend to downplay their successes. So this experiment resulted in an interesting form of personality diagnostics.

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

See what the “Zeigarnik effect” is in other dictionaries:

ZEYGARNIK, EFFECT- First put forward by Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927, the generalization that uncompleted tasks are remembered better than completed ones. Today the term is usually used to refer to the principle that any task that has been interrupted will be recalled... ... Explanatory dictionary of psychology

Zeigarnik effect- (1927) generalization according to which uncompleted tasks are remembered better than completed ones (that is, as B.V. Zeigarnik emphasizes, those completed with a feeling of satisfaction) ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

EFFECT OF ZEYGARNIK (effect of unfinished action)- - the phenomenon that a person remembers unfinished 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 memorization productivity on the dynamics of the subject’s needs (“completeness” of actions), which became known in psychology as the “Z effect.” In the future, developing... ...

ZEYGARNIK Bluma Vulfovna- (1900 1988) Russian psychologist. Doctor of Psychological Sciences. Professor (1967). Laureate of the Lomonosov Prize (1978) and the International Kurt Lewin Prize (1983). Soon 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 in which 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 explained by the fact that... ... Wikipedia

- (Zeigarnik effect) a phenomenon characterizing the influence of breaks in activity on memory processes. Established by B.V. Zeigarnik, who tested K. Levin’s hypothesis that interrupted tasks are remembered due to persisting motivational tension... ... Great psychological encyclopedia

The Zeigarnik effect was named after its discoverer, female psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. She proved that unfinished things give a person internal tension, which forces him to constantly remember these things and mentally return to them again and again.

Psychology - the effect of unfinished action (Zeigarnik)

In the 1920s, successful psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik became the discoverer of this amazing effect. Like many discoveries, it was discovered suddenly when a waiter in a cafe remembered 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 completed. This made it possible to make the assumption that a person perceives completed and unfinished tasks differently, since this also changes the status of significance.

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

Starting a task creates tension, and it only releases when the action is completed. Such tension constantly seeks to be relieved: people are uncomfortable in a state of incompleteness, and comfortable when the matter is over.

The effect of unfinished action in love

In life, the effect of an unfinished action can be very complex and very painful for those who are faced with it. Let's look at 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 moves far away and the relationship breaks down. Since then, they never saw each other again, only occasionally corresponded, but she remembers him both 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 completion. For example, meeting that person, talking, discovering that he in life and he in dreams are two different people. Or mentally complete the situation by imagining what would have happened if everything had turned out differently. Each specific case can be analyzed by a psychologist who can help guide you in the right direction.