THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 27

How can restaurant workers teach us to be more creative and to procrastinate less?

Subject:  Zeigarnik Effect - unfinished tasks more memorable

Event:  Birthday of Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik, 1901

One day, while sitting in a cafe with her mentor, Bluma Zeigarnik -- who was born on this day in 1901 -- had an epiphany that provides insight into human thinking and memory.  

At the time Zeigarnik was studying psychology at the University of Berlin under the direction of professor Kurt Lewin.  As the two sat drinking coffee, Lewin commented that the waiters in the cafe appeared to remember the orders of customers who had not yet paid much better than the orders of customers who had paid their tab.  The seemingly offhand comment got Zeigarnik thinking about how our thinking about completed tasks differs from our thinking about uncompleted tasks.

                                            Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay 

In a study that she completed in 1927, Zeigarnik gave 138 children a variety of tasks, such as puzzles, math problems, and clay modeling.  For half of the tasks, she interrupted the children before they completed their assignments.  Then, one hour after working on the task, she assessed the students’ recall of what tasks they had been given.  The results revealed the wisdom of Professor Lewin’s comment about the waiters:  One hundred and ten of the children remembered more of the interrupted tasks than those they had completed.  In contrast, only seventeen were able to recall the completed tasks better; only eleven remembered both the completed and uncompleted tasks.

The Zeigarnik effect explains why we are often preoccupied with thoughts about a project or other unfinished task.  An incomplete task creates cognitive tension which in turn generates more mental effort.  In contrast, a completed task allows us to release the cognitive tension and let go of being preoccupied with it.

Television shows capitalize on the Zeigarnik effect to keep us watching:  writers “end” each episode with some unresolved conflict that keeps us hanging and wanting to begin the next episode.  Likewise, movie trailers are carefully crafted to get us hooked; this is accomplished by presenting some of the movie’s key dramatic moments with well-timed interruptions.

Understanding how the Zeigarnik effect works can also provide us with new insights into how we can strategically use interruptions for our own benefit.  For example, if you are working on some kind of creative problem-solving, don’t be afraid to take a break or set your task aside for a day or two.  Because your task is incomplete, you can count on the Zeigarnik effect to keep you engaged, either consciously or unconsciously.  You might even have wake up at 3:00 AM with an epiphany.  Don’t view the act of setting a task aside as a negative; instead, see it as capitalizing on what psychologist Richard E. Nisbett calls “the free labor of the unconscious mind.” 

Furthermore, the Zeigarnik effect is a great method for fighting procrastination.  The next time you are faced with a task that you are tempted to put off, don’t worry about having to complete it; instead, just spend five or ten minutes getting started.  Having begun the task, you will be able to take advantage of the Zeigarnik effect to provide you with the necessary momentum and insight to finish it later.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the Zeigarnik effect, and how was it discovered by observing restaurant waiters?

Challenge - Unfinished Is Underrated:  Often we praise the act of getting things done, but the Zeigarnik effect can teach us the advantages of leaving tasks unfinished.  Write a short public service announcement, explaining why leaving some tasks unfinished might actually be a good thing.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

October 27, 1787:  On this day, Federalist Paper 1 was published in the Independent Journal of New York.  Today, Americans take the Constitutional form of government for granted.  But in 1787, shortly after the young, ragtag nation had thrown off the British monarchy and won its independence, a constitution was not a given.  The questions at that time were -- would there be a central federal government at all, and if there were, what would be its powers?  The original basis for the united thirteen states was the Articles of Confederation, but this gave the federal government little power:  no power to levy taxes, to regulate trade, or to enforce laws.  The Constitution, which offered a plan for a federal government based on checks and balances, was drafted in September of 1787, but it still needed to be ratified by at least nine states.  In October 1787, therefore, the federalists began their debate with the anti-federalists.  One of the chief proponents of the Constitution was Alexander Hamilton, the chief aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War and an elected representative from New York state to the Congress of the Confederation.  Hamilton knew that New York would be a key swing state in the debate, so he hatched a plan to write essays that would be published in New York newspapers to promote and explain the new Constitution.  To help him, Hamilton enlisted James Madison, who had served in the Continental Congress, and John Jay, a lawyer and diplomat.  Between October 1787 and May 1788, the trio wrote a total of 85 essays, totaling more than 175,000 words.  Each essay was published anonymously under the pen name “Publius,” an allusion to Publius Valerius Publicola, a supporter of the Roman Republic.  The Federalist Papers served as a kind of user’s guide to the Constitution, explaining how the people, not a king, would govern and how a federal government was needed to increase efficiency and to prevent the risk of another monarchy.  The papers also explained the separation of powers between the branches of government, and how government should operate to maintain individual liberty without anarchy.

In the end, the federalists won.  All thirteen states ratified the U.S. Constitution (2).

Sources: 

1-Goldberg, Philip.  The Babinski Reflex.  Tarcher, 1990.

Discovery of the Zeigarnik Effect

2-Beck, Glenn with Joshua Charles.  The Original Argument:  The Federalists’ Case for the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century.   New York:  Threshold Editions, 2011:  xxi-xxxi.