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A Zeigarnik-like Effect in the Recall of Anagram Solutions
Abstract
Subjects were asked to solve a series of 12 anagram problems. For each of these they were allowed 1 min. and if they did not solve it in this time they were told the solution. When asked to recall the solution words at the end of the series, subjects remembered items they had failed to complete almost twice as often as those they had solved.
It is suggested that this phenomenon is analogous to the Zeigarnik effect, but that it has the advantage of occurring in conditions which are easy to specify and control.
... First, the memory advantage could not be reliably replicated over the years (for an overview, see Butterfield, 1964;MacLeod, 2020;Van Bergen, 1968). Second, a memory advantage can still be observed when the unfinished status of an uncompleted intention is inherently terminated (Baddeley, 1963). Thus, the interruption and its interference with the anticipation of successfully completing a task may be crucial. ...
... The concept of tensions fails to explain a memory advantage for tasks that have been interrupted but are inherently finished. Specifically, Baddeley (1963) gave participants anagrams to solve. If they did not manage to solve them within 1 min, they were shown the solution. ...
... Hence, we used the approach employed by Baddeley (1963) to investigate the importance of the experience of a discrepancy between the anticipation of success and the subsequent failure for the memory advantage of interrupted tasks. We, too, had participants solve anagrams, for which they were allotted 60 s before they were presented the solution. ...
It is widely believed that unfinished tasks are better remembered than finished tasks, a phenomenon labelled the “Zeigarnik-Effect.” It has been argued that this advantage relies on the persisting tension inherent in uncompleted intentions. However, this interpretation has been challenged. First, the memory advantage could not be reliably replicated. Second, a memory advantage can still be observed when the unfinished status of an uncompleted intention is inherently terminated, rendering the “persisting tension” explanation unlikely. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential memory advantage of interrupted but finished tasks and its relation to the personality disposition achievement motivation, specifically, hope of success and fear of failure. This goal was motivated by the hypothesis that the experience of a discrepancy between the anticipation of success and the subsequent failure would relate to the memory for an unfinished task, and that this discrepancy experience would be stronger for people high in hope of success. A large sample of adults (>1,000 participants) was presented with 12 anagrams. If they did not solve an anagram within 60 s, they were shown the solution. Afterwards, we measured free recall of the anagram solutions and assessed achievement motivation. Overall, participants recalled more unsolved anagrams than solved anagrams. However, only individuals high in hope of success displayed a greater tendency to remember unsolved anagrams. This study supports the idea that a discrepancy experience rather than persisting tension coincides with memory for unsolved tasks.
... From this perspective, being denied the opportunity to express a suppressed thought should make it particularly compelling (for a discussion, see Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000). Indeed, interrupted and hence incomplete tasks or events are often remembered better than completed ones-the Zeigarnik effect (Zeigarnik, 1938; see also Baddeley, 1963). Thus, if suppressing the correct target during error commission underlies the derring effect, then expressing the target by writing it down during error correction would relax its suppression, thereby reducing or even eliminating the ironic rebound effect (e.g., Liberman & Förster, 2000). ...
... It is also difficult to reconcile our findings with the explanation that learners' enhanced recall of the targets reflected an ironic rebound effect (Wegner et al., 1987) from having mentally suppressed them during deliberate error commission. If so, then preventing learners from expressing the suppressed targets during error correction should have fueled the rebound effect (Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000; see also Baddeley, 1963;Zeigarnik, 1938), such that uncorrected targets would have been recalled better at test than corrected targets. Yet, we found the reverse. ...
How can we strategically and systematically learn from our errors? Over their long history, errors have traditionally been prevented entirely or, at best, permitted to occur spontaneously. Across three experiments, we tested and found evidence for a counterintuitive phenomenon that we termed the derring effect—deliberately committing errors even when one already knows the correct answers produces superior learning than avoiding them, particularly when one's errors are corrected. Learners engaged in an educationally relevant task of learning scientific term-definition concepts via open-book study by deliberately generating conceptually incorrect definitions with or without correction, or copying and underlining them (Experiment 1). On a cued recall test, deliberate erring outperformed errorless copying, with error correction yielding an additional benefit. This advantage of deliberate erring persisted over actively generating alternative conceptually correct answers (Experiment 2), which in turn surpassed copying. Even when errorless generation was given a further boost to involve a higher degree of elaboration by prompting learners to generate a specific real-world example that illustrated or applied each concept, deliberately committing and correcting errors still produced better learning (Experiment 3). Altogether, the derring effect is neither fully attributable to a generation nor an elaboration benefit, but stems at least in part from enhanced target processing specific to having first deliberately produced incorrect responses. Notwithstanding deliberate erring's prowess, learners were largely oblivious to its benefits, misjudging the strategy as less effective. Both theoretical and educational implications of positioning errors as active, systematic, and intentional events in learning are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... Could human memory make it possible to unconsciously distinguish between completed tasks and uncompleted tasks? (Zeigarnik 1927;Atkinson 1953;Baddeley 1963;Loflin 2014). ...
... Over the years, there have been several theories (Atkinson 1953;Baddeley 1963;Heimbach and Jacoby 1972;Kiebel 2009; Loflin 2014) about how the Zeigarnik effect works, with two competing hypotheses dominating the debate. One theory said that the brain subconsciously tracks our goals so we can achieve them. ...
Why does one organization remain successful while others are falling apart or just disappear? Why is one person successful over and over again, while no one expected him or her to be? The secret of winning persons and teams seems to lie in performance indicators and personality traits, on which—strangely enough—many organizations just do not select their employees.
... Bekannt geworden ist der sogenannte goal looms larger eect, die Beobachtung, dass Personen eine unerledigte Aufgabe umso besser im Gedächtnis behalten, je näher sie dem Ziel gekommen waren (Ovsiankina, 1928;Shah, 2005;Zeigarnik, 1927 Ziel. Gedächtnisabfragen können sowohl über freien Abruf (Baddeley, 1963;Zeigarnik, 1927) als auch über Rekognitionsmaÿe erfolgen (Mäntylä & Sgaramella, 1997 (Farley, 1971;Zeigarnik, 1927 (Baddeley, 1963;Zeigarnik, 1927 (Bransford & Stein, 1984;Brim, Glass, Lavin & Goodman, 1962;Polya, 1945; vgl. Abschnitt 3.1). ...
... Bekannt geworden ist der sogenannte goal looms larger eect, die Beobachtung, dass Personen eine unerledigte Aufgabe umso besser im Gedächtnis behalten, je näher sie dem Ziel gekommen waren (Ovsiankina, 1928;Shah, 2005;Zeigarnik, 1927 Ziel. Gedächtnisabfragen können sowohl über freien Abruf (Baddeley, 1963;Zeigarnik, 1927) als auch über Rekognitionsmaÿe erfolgen (Mäntylä & Sgaramella, 1997 (Farley, 1971;Zeigarnik, 1927 (Baddeley, 1963;Zeigarnik, 1927 (Bransford & Stein, 1984;Brim, Glass, Lavin & Goodman, 1962;Polya, 1945; vgl. Abschnitt 3.1). ...
Typische, komplexe Problemsituationen erfordern gleichermaßen, anfangs unbekannte Wirkzusammenhänge zu explorieren und multiple, widersprüchliche Ziele zu balancieren. Ein Rahmenmodell verbindet Hypothesen über mögliche a) motivationale und b) kognitiv-strategische Auswirkungen multipler Ziele beim komplexen Problemlösen. Diese werden in vier Experimenten geprüft. Mit zwei computersimulierten Szenarios wird ein Paradigma entworfen, das unter standardisierten Laborbedingungen Zielkonflikte in einem motivierenden Kontext induziert. Experiment 1 (N = 69) induziert einen Widerspruch zwischen zwei parallelen Zielen und demonstriert konfliktassoziierte Einbußen im Wohlbefinden und der aktuellen Erfolgserwartung. Experiment 2 (N = 42) zeigt vergleichbare Befunde für Konflikte zwischen vier inkompatiblen Zielen. Experiment 3 (N = 42) prüft anhand von Gedächtnisleistungen, ob nicht erreichte Ziele in induzierten Konfliktsituationen vermehrte gedankliche Rumination nach sich ziehen. Experiment 4 (N = 20) identifiziert Subformen ruminierender Gedanken und adaptive Strategien im Umgang mit Zielkonflikten in Verbalprotokollen (Eingriffsvermeidung, Eingriffsflexibilität). Prozessanalysen deuten auf zyklische Phasen des Misserfolgserlebens gekoppelt mit simultanen Phasen der Rumination hin. Die Ergebnisse werden anhand eines zeitlichen Verlaufsmodells diskutiert, forschungsmethodische Perspektiven und ergänzende Fragestellungen werden aufgezeigt.
... The resulting set of 120 words was then used to construct the stimulus anagrams. We used four patterns of letter arrangements that Hunter (1963, see alsoBaddeley, 1963) found to be equally difficult, namely 31524, 35142, 52413, and 42531. Next, to minimize item-specific effects, a separate group of 12 undergraduates solved each item; based on their results, we then excluded extremely easy and difficult items, as well as anagrams with multiple and/or unexpected solutions. ...
... The second main finding of this study was that Zeigarnik-like effects were observed both in free recall and recognition (i.e., retrospective memory performance). Thus, consistent with Zeigarnik's (1927) original study and that ofBaddeley (1963), the solutions of the interrupted items were better recalled and recognized than those of the completed items. Although our findings both replicated and extended Zeigarnik's (1927) original study, the present results are no necessarily consistent with Lewin's (1926/1961) and Zeigarnik's explanation of the phenomenon, namely that interrupted items are remembered better than completed items due to a heightened level of activation. ...
In two experiments, we examined the effects of task interruption on memory for intentions. Participants studied a series of anagrams, of which they solved one-half (Exp. 1) or two-thirds (Exp. 2), whereas the solution of the remaining items was interrupted by the experimenter. Furthermore, four anagrams (prospective cue items) differed from the remaining anagrams in that the third letter of each item was underlined. Participants were instructed to decide whether a subsequently presented (target) anagram contained the same or a different third letter as the underlined letter of the cue item. The results of both experiments showed Zeigarnik-like effects in prospective memory, so that cue items that were associated with interruption in the anagram task were better reminders than were items that were associated with completion. These findings suggest that interruption of an ongoing activity facilitates subsequent prospective memory performance, possibly by increasing the level of activation of the underlying intention representation that, in turn, increases the individual's sensitivity to identify the target event.
... Another research stream examines permanent interruptions that do not allow individuals to complete the interrupted task at all. Studies in this area have focused primarily on positive outcomes, such as increased recall in a memory task (Baddeley, 1963), greater attention to advertising stimuli (Hammadi & Qureishi, 2013), enhanced evaluations of consumption experiences (Nelson & Meyvis, 2008;Nelson et al., 2009), and higher willingness to pay (Kardes et al., 2007). However, anecdotal evidence also shows negative reactions to such incompleteness and interruptions. ...
To preview digital content and arouse consumers' interest, online providers often use short teasers designed in an unfinished form, such that the teaser begins a new sentence but does not finish it. These teasers aim to create curiosity and trigger consumption of the advertised content. However, we reveal that consumers' reactions to unfinished teasers are not always positive. The results from a qualitative pilot study and five experimental studies show that consumers react negatively to unfinished teasers for paid content, as demonstrated by reduced purchases. This effect reverses for free content, in that unfinished teasers lead to more consumption. We explain this reversal by showing that the barrier associated with paid content (i.e., the payment requirement) activates consumers' persuasion knowledge and suppresses any positive curiosity‐induced effects, which does not occur when content is available for free. These findings offer novel insights into the complexity of consumers' reactions to prevalent advertising techniques designed to promote content consumption in digital marketplaces.
... Just as Berlin waiters could remember what their customers ordered for dinner until they had paid for it and then not be able to recall it, so did children remember the games they had been playing but had not yet finished rather than games that had reached a conclusion (Zeigarnik, 1927(Zeigarnik, /1967. Similar results have been reported for unsolved versus solved anagrams (Baddeley, 1963) and depending upon the task, reflects competing motivations for success and failure avoidance (Atkinson, 1953). Inspired by Zeigarnik's initial study, examination of the effects of interrupted tasks continues to this day to address the modern problem of timesharing between many tasks (Couffe & Michael, 2017) and is a major concern for computer scientists and human factor engineers. ...
The study of personality dynamics has a long history of being said to be important, but a much shorter history of actually being examined. We give an overview of the past 100 years of research on dynamic processes and suggest how recent methodological and analytic techniques can be applied to the important problem of studying individual differences in the coherent patterning over time of affect, behavior, and cognition.
... The cognitive activity involved in the search for the required word might provide input more helpful to later recall than is the case for the words or pictures. Such an effect may be similar to a finding by Baddeley (1963) that recall for words whose anagrams were shown was better when the anagrams were not solved by S 1 than for the solved ones. Baddeley did not compare anagram-based recall with recall when the words themselves were shown, but it is possible that recall for words whose anagrams were solved may in turn be superior to recall where words themselves had been shown on learning trials. ...
Conducted 2 experiments with a total of 96 undergraduates. In Exp I, recall for words whose definitions were presented was contrasted with recall following presentations of pictures of the objects denoted by the words and of the words themselves. Highest recall scores were produced by the definitions in comparisons both across 3 groups given different materials and within a 4th group given the 3 kinds of materials. Exp II compared recall following presentation of the same definitions with recall for the same words in 2 other verbal context-sentences ending in these words and the same sentences in incomplete form that required the word to be supplied. The superior recall found for both incomplete sentences and definitions appeared to be caused by a combination of imagery arousal and problem-solving activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... (2) Effort after meaning, planning and time pressure: It is generally true that the greater engagement in the processing of material, the stronger the learning. For example, Baddeley (1963) found that the harder the solved anagram, the easier it was to remember. If we are designing web sites to promote learning of structure, this leads to the counterintuitive hypothesis that it might pay to make navigation harder. ...
We compare user navigation performance using two hypertext information sites of identical node structure but embedded in different metaphors. The first is based upon the layout of a house and is consistent with Euclidean space. The second represents social links between people for which a spatial metaphor is not apparent. Search for targets within the structures, and the speed of their subsequent retrieval on a second search, is compared in a 2 × 4 × 2 factorial design manipulating: metaphor (spatial or non-spatial); navigation, tools (participants have both a site map and bookmark tool, one of these, or no tools at all) and the time pressure under which navigation is carried out (paced or unpaced). A strong main effect is found in which the spatial metaphor produces higher performance under all conditions. Similarly, time pressure has the general effect of trading-off a faster initial search with less efficient retrieval later. However, navigation tool use is highly context dependent and sometimes counterintuitive: certain conditions show poorer performance with two navigation aids than one. We argue that navigation tools are mediating structures for activities, such as bookmarking and learning the structure of the site, which represent cognitive investment for future retrieval. In this view, user performance is optimized by the balance of two potentially antagonistic conditions. First, the usability of tools and metaphor must free cognitive resources for planning; but also, the difficulty of the task and the need for planning must remain visible to the user. The implications for design are discussed.
... Although the examination of recency effects has been ongoing since the 1960s (e.g., Adelman, Tolcott, & Bresnick, 1993;Baddeley, 1963;Bjork & Whitten, 1974;Rundus, 1971;Waugh & Norman, 1965), there has been no research (to our knowledge) of the impact of presentation order within police investigations. However, there has been research examining presentation order effects in jury decision-making (e.g., Constabile & Klein, 2005;Davis, Tindale, Nagao, Hinsz, & Robertson, 1984;Wallace & Wilson, 1969;Wilson, 1971). ...
Presentation order of ID and Alibi evidence was manipulated for undergraduate participants who conducted a simulated police investigation. Experiment 1 found a recency effect when an eyewitness rejected the investigator's suspect. Experiment 2 also examined order effects, exploring how participant-investigators evaluated alibi information in addition to eyewitness ID information. When investigators saw the witness identify the suspect but also received a strong alibi for that suspect a recency effect occurred, such that whichever piece of information occurred at the end of the procedure had the strongest impact on investigators. Thus, type of evidence and evidence order both had a dramatic influence on participant-investigators' decisions.
... When subsequently asked to list ail ofthe tasks, the subjects consistently recalled more of the interrupted tasks. Similar effects have been found for the recall of anagrams when attempts to solve them were interrupted (Baddeley, 1963). Zeigarnik's explanation of her effect was that the unfinished tasks caused "unresolved tension," which supposedly served to maintain the memory traces of them at least temporarily. ...
Two experiments were conducted with a hybrid procedure that involved a battery of indirect criterion tests designed to study the activation and metacognition of inaccessible stored information. In each experiment, subjects first attempted to recall some rare target words in response to a series of definitions meant to cue retrieval from long-term semantic memory. For the words that could not be recalled initially, the subjects rated their feelings of knowing. They then performed a lexical-decision task in which the target words and other control words were presented. Reaction times were measured as a function of the feeling-of-knowing ratings and the length of the interval between the initial exposure to the definitions and the subsequent lexical decisions. Faster decisions occurred for the target words than for the controls, especially when strong feelings of knowing had been expressed about the targets. Similar facilitation was obtained in a subsequent old-new recognition task. It appears that unsuccessful attempts to retrieve inaccessible stored information prime the later recognition of the information through a process of spreading activation. Such activation may sensitize people to future occurrences of stimulus inputs needed for insightful solutions of semantically rich problems.
Computational models of personality offer a means of bridging the gap between “bottom-up” neuroscience and contemporary individual difference researchers’ efforts to build “top-down” self-report questionnaires. Dynamic models like Atkinson and Birch's Dynamics of Action model (1970), Read and colleagues’ Virtual Personalities model (Read & Miller, 2002; Read et al., 2010), and Revelle and Condon's Cues-Tendencies-Actions (CTA) model (2015) generate the observable between-persons' differences in behavior and effect on which self-report measures are based, from the unobservable within-persons differences on which modern personality theories are premised. Here, we focus on the “CTARST” model, which unites CTA and a reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) simulation. CTARST has been used to simulate, in detail, data from three real-life studies that linked within- and between-person variability: Smillie, Cooper, Wilt, and Revelle (2012), Wilt, Bleidorn, and Revelle (2017), and Wilt, Funkhouser, and Revelle (2011). Results demonstrated that the CTARST model is able to usefully approximate actual data regarding psychological dynamics.
Handyspiele sind beliebt bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. Viele davon enthalten jedoch Mechanismen, die ganz gezielt eingesetzt werden, um die Spielzeit oder Spielhäufigkeit zu erhöhen („Aufmerksamkeitsheischer“). Andere Mechanismen erhöhen die Bereitschaft zu ‚in-App-Käufen‘ („Geldzieher“). Hier zeigen wir an zwei bekannten Handyspielen den Einsatz einiger dieser Mechanismen auf und diskutieren, wie Spieledesigner ihre Effektivität mit sogenannten A/B-Tests ständig verbessern können. Im Extremfall könnten diese Test sogar dafür genutzt werden, um für jede Nutzerin die für sie am stärksten wirksame Mischung an Aufmerksamkeitsheischern und Geldziehern zu identifizieren. Während die entsprechenden Firmen immer mehr Erfahrung über die Wirksamkeit dieser Mechanismen sammeln, weiß die Öffentlichkeit fast nichts darüber – hier ist dringend mehr Forschung notwendig, um Verbraucher zu informieren und insbesondere Kinder und Jugendliche wirksam schützen zu können.
Eight subjects recalled lists of unrelated words, presented at a rate of one word every 8 sec, under one of two conditions. In the “association” condition, subjects were induced to semantically encode the items by instructions to report, during the presentation of each test item, as many words as possible semantically related to that item. Recall under this strategy was compared with that in the “repetition” condition where the subjects were instructed to repeat each test item aloud continuously during its presentation. No significant difference was found between the total number of words recalled under the two strategies. However, the primacy effect, present in the repetition condition, was found to be absent in the association condition. This loss of primacy was interpreted as being due to the prevention of rehearsal by the association task. The results have implications for research into the effects of orienting tasks on free recall.
The purpose was to lay a foundation for the design of low-cost training devices through an analysis of skill performance. Cognitive motor skills are analyzed in terms of the processing of information. Cognitive processes involved in both types of skills include task recognition; task comprehension; goal setting; planning performance; initiating, monitoring, and regulating performance; stimulus encoding and elaboration; attentional processes; retention and retrieval of information; hierarchical schemata for discrimination and generalization; motivation; and skill integration and automatization. For motor skills, special attention is given to structural characteristics of movements; temporal characteristics of movements; signal discrimination and generalization; roles of sensory modes and their interactions; and patterns of skill integration. Empirically based concepts are used throughout to provide an operational means of manipulating variables during training, and examples are given of methods for empirically assessing the roles of various processes. It is concluded that the analyses could be readily extrapolated to a training technology in general and to the design of training devices in particular. Selected research topics illustrate what could be involved in the extrapolation.
Three experiments were conducted to investigate the relative memorability of solved versus unsolved problems in long-term memory. In each experiment, subjects worked on a set of potentially solvable word problems, with the time spent on each problem held constant. Problem memorability was then measured with a free-recall task. In Experiment 1, in which a majority of problems were solved, unsolved problems were better remembered. In Experiments 2 and 3, we expanded on these results by manipulating problem difficulty and thus the ratio of solved to unsolved problems. When unsolved problems were as frequent as or more frequent than solved problems, no memory differences were found. Across all three experiments, the ratio of solved to unsolved problems was found to be a significant predictor of unsolved-problem memorability, but was not significantly related to the memorability of solved problems. The results illustrate that when impasses in problem solving are infrequent, they are more available in memory than are solved problems. It is speculated that this memory phenomenon may facilitate the recognition of opportunities to return to problems that have been terminated short of solution.
An experiment is reported involving 72 student subjects, a population of 144 different five-letter anagrams and a total of 864 solution times for analysis. Various characteristics of anagram solving are considered leading to a conception of the process as a recurring trial and check activity in which the nature and sequence of the tries are determined jointly by the thinker's set, linguistic knowledge, and preference for certain forms of letter position rearrangement. Regarding this last factor of letter location, solution is attained sooner if the thinker must change the location of a single letter (a) rather than the locations of several letters, (b) to a nearby rather than to a distant location, and (c) from an end to a middle rather than from a middle to an end location: ease of moving a single letter does not depend on the direction of the move. A subsidiary experiment shows that the relative difficulty of complex, as contrasted with simple, moves is less for students than for 15-year-olds than for 12-year-olds. This finding is interpreted in terms of interaction between letter location factors and varying levels of linguistic knowledge. It is ksuggested that improvement in overall anagram solving performance can be brought about only with learning which extends over a period of months or years.
- Alper T. G.