Von Restorff Research Articles

Cultural life scripts as schema: recalling schema congruent and incongruent events from a hypothetical life story

ABSTRACT This study, involving 34 Malaysian adults, investigated if the memory of cultural life script congruent and incongruent events was better than life script neutral events. We created a 1500-word hypothetical life story of a Malaysian girl comprising six life script congruent, six life script incongruent, and six life script neutral events. Half of those events were high-frequent, and half were low-frequent life script events. Participants first read the story on a computer screen and then completed a free recall test ten minutes later and again one week later. They recalled as many details as they could from the 18 events presented in the story. The results revealed that participants retrieved more information from the life script incongruent events than from life script congruent events at both recall points. The memory for high-frequent life script events was better than for low-frequent and life script-neutral events. Overall, the recall rate was higher in the immediate than in the late phase. The results confirm the isolation effects or Von Restorff effect, which predicts that unusual and distinctive events are more memorable than typical, commonly expected events.

Contextual novelty detection and novelty-related memory enhancement in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

IntroductionThough novelty processing plays a critical role in memory function, little is known about how it influences learning in memory-impaired populations, such as amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI). Methods21 aMCI patients and 22 age- and education-matched healthy older participants performed two tasks—(i) an oddball paradigm where fractals that were often repeated (60 % of the stimuli), less frequently repeated (20 %), or novel (presented once each) were shown to assess novelty preference (longer viewing time for novel than familiar stimuli), and (ii) a Von Restorff paradigm assessing novelty-related effects on memory. Participants studied 22 lists of 10 words. Among these lists, 18 contained an isolated word different from the others by its distinctive aspect, here the font size (90-point, 120-point or 150-point against 60-point for non-isolated words). The remaining four were control lists without isolated words. After studying each list, participants freely recalled the maximum words possible. ResultsFor the oddball task, a group-by-stimulus type ANOVA on median viewing times revealed a significant effect of stimulus type, but not of group. Both groups spent more time on novel stimuli. For the Von Restorff task, both aMCI and healthy controls recalled the isolated words (presented in 120-point or 150-point, but not 90-point) better than others (excluding primacy and recency effects). Novelty-related memory benefit—gain factor—was computed as the difference between the recall scores for isolated and other words. A group-by-font size ANOVA on gain factors revealed no group effect, nor interaction, suggesting that aMCI patients benefited from novelty, alike controls. ConclusionNovelty preference and the boosting effect of isolation-related novelty on subsequent recall seem preserved despite impaired episodic memory in aMCI patients. This is discussed in the light of contemporary divergent theories regarding the relationship between novelty and memory, as either being independent or parts of a continuum.

Counterintuitive Concepts Across Domains: A Unified Phenomenon?

The minimally counterintuitive (MCI) thesis in the cognitive science of religion proposes that supernatural concepts are prevalent across cultures because they possess a common structure-namely, violations of intuitive ontological assumptions that facilitate concept representation. These violations are hypothesized to give supernatural concepts a memorability advantage over both intuitive concepts and "maximally counterintuitive" (MXCI) concepts, which contain numerous ontological violations. However, the connection between MCI concepts and bizarre (BIZ) but not supernatural concepts, for which memorability advantages are predicted by the von Restorff (VR) effect, has been insufficiently clarified by earlier research. Additionally, the role of inferential potential (IP) in determining MCI concepts' memorability has remained vague and only rarely controlled for. In a pre-registered experiment, we directly compare memorability for MCI and MXCI concepts, compared to BIZ concepts, while controlling for IP as well as degree of bizarreness. Results indicate that when IP and bizarreness are controlled for, memorability of counterintuitive and BIZ concepts-relative to intuitive control concepts-is similar across concepts with one, two, and three characteristics. Findings suggest that the MCI and VR effects may be manifestations of the same underlying mechanisms.

American Humorous Discourse. Manipulation Strategy

The conducted research shows that the communicative strategy of manipulation is widespread in the American humorous discourse. The communicative strategy of manipulation can be implemented through the tactic of ambiguity, the tactic of faulty logic, the tactic of comic lies, and the tactic of restraint.This can be implemented through ambiguity tactics and different types of ambiguous communicative acts that use the following variants of double meaning: «Feghoot», «hurricane of puns», «Stealth», «double entendre», «innocent innuendo», «accidental innuendo», «double meaning with clarification», «Lampshaded double entendre» etc. At least in part, they are based on such a cognitive pattern as «Von Restorff» or «Extraordinarity». Modernity is characterized by the process of nomination and standardization of American terminology, which is used for American literature, literary journalism, and cinema, while it actively penetrates into multimedia content around the world.

Gestalt Theory’s Less Known Studies: Memory

This article is a sequel to “Gestalt Theory: Its Past, its Stranding, and its Future..”. It focuses on what Gestalt theory proposed and produced within the area of memory, which unfortunately are almost unknown. It is typically believed that Gestalt theory is a theory about perception only. This, however, is not true. The aim of this article is to bring to daylight the conceptual and empirical contributions of Gestalt theory within the field of memory. The first part of the article discusses some critical proposals about memory processes in Kurt Koffka’s Principles of Gestalt (1936) book. These involve Koffka’s proposal about the involvement and effects of memory processes in the perception of successive Gestalts; a discussion of the similarities and differences between percepts and memory traces; Koffka’s reference to research suggesting that memory traces are dynamic such that depending on their Prägnanz they will or will not change during storage; that the type of change can even be predicted in some cases. The article will then review one of the most powerful empirical studies on memory within a Gestalt framework, i. e., Hedwig von Restorff’s 1933 dissertation demonstrating how figure-ground effects are at play not only in perception but also in memory. In the final part of this article, I will present Erich Goldmeier’s very original and interesting memory work, which seemed utterly ignored by mainstream cognitive psychology. Keywords: Gestalt theory, figure-ground, Prägnanz & dynamic memory traces, Kurt Koffka, Hedwig von Restorff, Erich Goldmeier

Zeigarnik and von Restorff: The memory effects and the stories behind them.

Two of the best known eponymous phenomena in memory research were carried out as dissertations in the same era at the same university, each supervised by an influential researcher working within the Gestalt framework. Both examined the influence of unexpected events on memory. Bluma Zeigarnik (Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1-85, 1927) first reported that memory is better for interrupted tasks than for completed tasks, a phenomenon long known as the Zeigarnik effect. Hedwig von Restorff (Psychologische Forschung, 18, 299-342, 1933) first reported that memory is better for isolated than for non-isolated pieces of information, a phenomenon long known as the von Restorff effect. In this article, I present: (1) a biographical sketch of the researcher behind each phenomenon, (2) a description of their dissertation research, and (3) an evaluation of the current status of each phenomenon.

The Von Restorff effect in the Brazilian version of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test in an elderly population.

ABSTRACT.The Von Restorff (isolation) effect refers to a stimulus that is more likely to be remembered amongst other stimuli in memory tasks. It has been demonstrated with different age ranges and methodologies.Objective:To investigate: a) the presence of the isolation effect in elders tested with the new Brazilian Portuguese version of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task (RAVLT) in which a word with potential emotional weight (mother) was introduced; b) whether isolation effects persist in memory disorders of different degrees of severity (Mild Cognitive Impairment [MCI]; Alzheimer’s Dementia [AD]).Methods:The RAVLT was administered to 287 consecutive volunteers. Individuals underwent medical and neuropsychological evaluation and were further sub-grouped into normal controls (n=114), MCI (n=87) and AD (n=86) patients. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Chi-squared tests were performed. Post-hoc Tukey analysis was conducted to assess significance of group differences.Results:There were significant group effects on the learning curve. A W-shape - instead of the classical U-shape - was found for the serial position curve in all groups.Conclusion:The new Brazilian version of the RAVLT exhibited the Von Restorff effect, where this phenomenon was evident not only in older adults but also patients with MCI and AD, providing further psychometric measures for inter-group analyses.

What explains the von Restorff effect? Contrasting distinctive processing and retrieval cue efficacy

Abstract This study contrasted two explanations of the von Restorff effect – distinctive processing and retrieval cue efficacy, which differ in their assumptions about encoding processes. A homonym, kiwi, was used as the critical word and manipulated to either be synonymous with background items, or made an isolate by orienting participants towards its alternate meaning. The orientation was done at either the encoding or retrieval stages. Experiments 1a and 1b showed that even without distinctive processing at encoding, the von Restorff effect could still occur at retrieval in the presence of an effective retrieval cue. Experiments 2 and 3 eliminated the von Restorff effect through equating cue overload between the control and isolation lists. The results support the retrieval cue efficacy account and suggest that it is not necessary to have distinctive processing to obtain the isolation effect.

A Buffer Model Account of Behavioral and ERP Patterns in the Von Restorff Paradigm

We combined a mechanistic model of episodic encoding with theories on the functional significance of two event-related potential (ERP) components to develop an integrated account for the Von Restorff effect, which refers to the enhanced recall probability for an item that deviates in some feature from other items in its study list. The buffer model of Lehman and Malmberg (2009, 2013) can account for this effect such that items encountered during encoding enter an episodic buffer where they are actively rehearsed. When a deviant item is encountered, in order to re-allocate encoding resources towards this item the buffer is emptied from its prior content, a process labeled “compartmentalization”. Based on theories on their functional significance, the P300 component of the ERP may co-occur with this hypothesized compartmentalization process, while the frontal slow wave may index rehearsal. We derived predictions from this integrated model for output patterns in free recall, systematic variance in ERP components, as well as associations between the two types of measures in a dataset of 45 participants who studied and freely recalled lists of the Von Restorff type. Our major predictions were confirmed and the behavioral and physiological results were consistent with the predictions derived from the model. These findings demonstrate that constraining mechanistic models of episodic memory with brain activity patterns and generating predictions for relationships between brain activity and behavior can lead to novel insights into the relationship between the brain, the mind, and behavior.

On the roles of distinctiveness and semantic expectancies in episodic encoding of emotional words.

We examined the factors that contribute to enhanced recall for emotionally arousing words by analyzing behavioral performance, the P300 as an index of distinctiveness, and the N400 as an index of semantic expectancy violation in a modified Von Restorff paradigm. While their EEG was recorded, participants studied three list types (1) neutral words including one emotionally arousing isolate (either positive or negative), (2) arousing, negative words including one neutral isolate, or (3) arousing, positive words including one neutral isolate. Immediately after each list, free recall was tested. Negative, but not positive, words exhibited enhanced recall when presented as isolates in lists of neutral words and elicited a larger P300 for subsequently recalled than not-recalled words. This suggests that arousing, negative words stand out and that their distinctiveness contributes to their superior recall. Positive valence had an enhancing effect on recall only when the list contained mostly other positive words. Neutral isolates placed in either positive or negative lists elicited an N400, suggesting that semantic expectations developed in emotional word lists regardless of valence. However, semantic relatedness appeared to more strongly contribute to recall for positive than negative words. Our results suggest that distinctiveness and semantic relatedness contribute to episodic encoding of arousing words, but the impact of each factor depends on both a word's valence and its context.

Editorial: Representational states in memory: where do we stand?

Editorial: Representational states in memory: where do we stand?

Does the isolation effect require attention?

An item that differs from the surrounding items is remembered better than an item that is consistent with its surroundings; this is known as the von Restorff effect or isolation effect (von Restorff, Psychologische Forschung, 18, 299-342, 1933). Theoretical explanations have proposed that the isolate is processed differently from control items, though some research has suggested that this processing might require more attention for semantic than for physical isolates. To test this possibility, in the present study we examined the isolation effects for physical isolates and semantic isolates under full and divided attention. Participants viewed lists of categorized words, with some lists containing either a physical or a semantic isolate, followed by immediate written free recall. Across three experiments, divided attention eliminated the semantic isolation effect but did not impact the physical isolation effect. Furthermore, semantic isolates were output earlier in recall than controls, whereas physical isolates were output more similarly to controls. These findings suggest that semantic isolation effects require attention during encoding, whereas physical isolation effects are relatively automatic.

Inattentional blindness and the von Restorff effect.

Sometimes we fail to notice distinctive or unusual items (inattentional blindness), while other times we remember distinctive items more than expected items (the von Restorff effect). A three-factor framework is presented and tested in two experiments in an attempt to reconcile these seemingly contradictory phenomena. Memory for different types of unexpected stimuli was tested after an easy or difficult Stroop color-naming task. Highly arousing taboo words were well remembered even when the difficult Stroop task limited attentional resources. However, a conceptual isolation effect was only observed when the nature of the category change was highlighted by the Stroop task, the Stroop task was easy, and/or the isolated targets enjoyed a retrieval advantage relative to comparison targets. As proposed in the three-factor framework, the arousing qualities of the stimuli, the attentional demands of the primary task, and the relevance of isolated features at encoding and retrieval combine to produce inattentional blindness and the von Restorff effect.

Novelty processing and memory formation in Parkinson׳s disease

BackgroundParkinson׳s disease (PD) is characterized by a degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic cells, resulting in dopamine depletion. This depletion is counteracted through dopamine replacement therapy (DRT). Dopamine has been suggested to affect novelty processing and memory, which suggests that these processes are also implicated in PD and that DRT could affect them. ObjectiveTo investigate word learning and novelty processing in patients with PD as indexed by the P2 and P3 event-related potential components, and the role of DRT in these processes. Methods21 patients with PD and 21 matched healthy controls were included. Patients with PD were tested on and off DRT in two sessions in a counterbalanced design, and healthy controls were tested twice without intervention. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured while participants performed a word learning Von Restorff task. ResultsHealthy controls showed the typical Von Restorff effect, with better memory for words that were presented in novel fonts, than for words presented in standard font. Surprisingly, this effect was reversed in the patients with PD. In line with the behavioral findings, the P3 was larger for novel than for standard font words in healthy controls, but not in patients with PD. For both groups the P2 and P3 event-related components were larger for recalled versus forgotten words. DRT did not affect these processes. ConclusionsLearning of novel information is compromised in patients with PD. Likewise, the P2 and P3 components that predict successful memory encoding are reduced in PD patients. This was true both on and off DRT, suggesting that these findings reflect abnormalities in learning and memory in PD that are not resolved by dopaminergic medication.

The role of the frontal cortex in memory: an investigation of the Von Restorff effect.

Evidence from neuropsychology and neuroimaging indicate that the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) plays an important role in human memory. Although frontal patients are able to form new memories, these memories appear qualitatively different from those of controls by lacking distinctiveness. Neuroimaging studies of memory indicate activation in the PFC under deep encoding conditions, and under conditions of semantic elaboration. Based on these results, we hypothesize that the PFC enhances memory by extracting differences and commonalities in the studied material. To test this hypothesis, we carried out an experimental investigation to test the relationship between the PFC-dependent factors and semantic factors associated with common and specific features of words. These experiments were performed using Free-Recall of word lists with healthy adults, exploiting the correlation between PFC function and fluid intelligence. As predicted, a correlation was found between fluid intelligence and the Von-Restorff effect (better memory for semantic isolates, e.g., isolate “cat” within category members of “fruit”). Moreover, memory for the semantic isolate was found to depend on the isolate's serial position. The isolate item tends to be recalled first, in comparison to non-isolates, suggesting that the process interacts with short term memory. These results are captured within a computational model of free recall, which includes a PFC mechanism that is sensitive to both commonality and distinctiveness, sustaining a trade-off between the two.

Non-abstractive global-matching models: A framework for investigating the distinctiveness effect on explicit and implicit memory

One very well-known memory phenomenon is the observation that if a specific item seems to be different or rare in any way from other items present in the same encoding context, this item is likely to be remembered more accurately. This phenomenon, named the von Restorff effect or the isolation effect, has been known since 1933 and been considered today as one of the possible ways to create distinctiveness. The aim of this article is to report that the current debate concerning its non-emergence in implicit memory tasks is directly due to a theoretical disagreement about the nature of human memory. In this paper, we conclude that non-abstractive global-matching models can provide an effective theoretical framework for the study of the distinctiveness effect with isolation both in implicit and explicit memory tasks.

Intelligence as it relates to conscious and unconscious memory influences.

We examine the relationship between a measure of intelligence and estimates of conscious and unconscious memory influences derived using Jacoby's (Jacoby, L. L. [1991]. A process dissociation framework: Separating automatic from intentional uses of memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513-541.) process-dissociation procedure. We find a positive relationship between intelligence and conscious memory, and no relationship between intelligence and unconscious influences once the impact of conscious influences are removed (Experiment 1). We also find that when participants cannot engage in conscious strategies, such as when there is insufficient time for learning, the relationships observed in Experiment 1 are eliminated (Experiments 2A and 2B). Our results support the notion that individual differences in intelligence reflect differences in conscious strategic processes (Karis, D., Fabiani, M., & Donchin, E. [1984]. "P300" and memory: Individual differences in the von Restorff effect. Cognitive Psychology, 16, 177-216.) and not differences in mental speed (Eysenck, H. J. (1984). Intelligence versus behavior. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 290-291; Jensen, A. R. [1982]. Bias in mental testing. New York, NY: Free Press).

The Detection of Novelty Relies on Dopaminergic Signaling: Evidence from Apomorphine's Impact on the Novelty N2

Despite much research, it remains unclear if dopamine is directly involved in novelty detection or plays a role in orchestrating the subsequent cognitive response. This ambiguity stems in part from a reliance on experimental designs where novelty is manipulated and dopaminergic activity is subsequently observed. Here we adopt the alternative approach: we manipulate dopamine activity using apomorphine (D1/D2 agonist) and measure the change in neurological indices of novelty processing. In separate drug and placebo sessions, participants completed a von Restorff task. Apomorphine speeded and potentiated the novelty-elicited N2, an Event-Related Potential (ERP) component thought to index early aspects of novelty detection, and caused novel-font words to be better recalled. Apomorphine also decreased the amplitude of the novelty-P3a. An increase in D1/D2 receptor activation thus appears to potentiate neural sensitivity to novel stimuli, causing this content to be better encoded.

Electrophysiological analysis of the role of novelty in the von Restorff effect

Items that are distinctive with respect to their context tend to be recalled better than nondistinctive items, a finding known as the von Restorff effect. The goal of this study was to elucidate the role of novelty in this effect. In two experiments, participants performed a dual task in which they had to study words presented visually while to-be ignored sounds were played over earphones. Sounds could be either standard or novel, and words could be presented in standard or novel font. Sounds were presented either simultaneously with the words (Experiment 1) or preceding them (Experiment 2). Electrophysiological correlates of novelty processing, the N2b and P3a ERP components, were recorded while the words were studied. It was seen that cued recall was better for words presented in novel fonts than for words in a standard font (the von Restorff effect). Words presented while novel sounds were played were remembered worse (Experiment 1) or equally well (Experiment 2) than those combined with standard sounds. Words presented in novel fonts elicited enhanced N2b, P3a, P3b, and N400 components; however, none of these components were specifically larger for subsequently recalled novel-font words. A larger N2b was found for recalled than for nonrecalled words, but this effect was not specific for words presented in novel font. We hypothesized that if novelty was beneficial for memory processing, the N2–P3 complex would be more enhanced for novel words that were later recalled than for those not recalled. The data showed otherwise. This suggests that novelty processing, as indexed by the N2–P3 novelty components, is not the main cause of the von Restorff effect.

Joint effects of emotion and color on memory.

Numerous studies have shown that memory is enhanced for emotionally negative and positive information relative to neutral information. We examined whether emotion-induced memory enhancement is influenced by low-level perceptual attributes such as color. Because in everyday life red is often used as a warning signal, whereas green signals security, we hypothesized that red might enhance memory for negative information and green memory for positive information. To capture the signaling function of colors, we measured memory for words standing out from the context by color, and manipulated the color and emotional significance of the outstanding words. Making words outstanding by color strongly enhanced memory, replicating the well-known von Restorff effect. Furthermore, memory for colored words was further increased by emotional significance, replicating the memory-enhancing effect of emotion. Most intriguingly, the effects of emotion on memory additionally depended on color type. Red strongly increased memory for negative words, whereas green strongly increased memory for positive words. These findings provide the first evidence that emotion-induced memory enhancement is influenced by color and demonstrate that different colors can have different functions in human memory.