Concept information
Preferred term
von Restorff effect
Definition
- A primary distinctiveness effect observed when the memory of an item is enhanced if it stands out from all other items.(e.g. a word written in red among words written in black).
Broader concept
Synonym(s)
- isolation effect
Belongs to group
Bibliographic citation(s)
-
• Beran, M. J. (2011). Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show the isolation effect during serial list recognition memory tests. Animal Cognition, 14(5), 637–645. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-011-0398-1
{{#each properties}}• Document type: empirical study
• Access: open
- • Chee, Q. W., & Goh, W. D. (2018). What explains the von Restorff effect? Contrasting distinctive processing and retrieval cue efficacy. Journal of Memory and Language, 99, 49–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2017.11.002
• Document type: empirical study
• Access: closed
- • Hunt, R. R. (1995). The subtlety of distinctiveness: What von Restorff really did. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2(1), 105–112. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214414
• Document type: literature review
• Access: open
- • Kamp, S.-M., Lenhof, C., Zeiler, D., Kaumanns, A., & Malmberg, K. J. (in press). The von Restorff effect in free recall, recognition, and source memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001518
• Document type: empirical study
• Access: closed
• Dataset reference: Kamp, S.-M., Zeiler, D., Lenhof, C., Kaumanns, A., & Malmberg, K. J. (2025, April 14). The Von Restorff Effect in Recall, Recognition and Source Memory. https://osf.io/jtw5v
- • MacLeod, C. M. (2020). Zeigarnik and von Restorff: The memory effects and the stories behind them. Memory & Cognition, 48(6), 1073–1088. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-020-01033-5
• Document type: historical study
• Access: open
- • Restorff, H. von. (1933). Über die Wirkung von Bereichsbildungen im Spurenfeld. Psychologische Forschung, 18(1), 299–342. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02409636
• Document type: empirical study
• Access: closed
Creator
- Frank Arnould
In other languages
-
French
-
effet d'isolement
URI
http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-GDVH1Z2G-1{{/each}}{{label}}
{{#each values }} {{! loop through ConceptPropertyValue objects }} {{#if prefLabel }}{{/if}} {{/each}}{{#if notation }}{{ notation }} {{/if}}{{ prefLabel }} {{#ifDifferentLabelLang lang }} ({{ lang }}){{/ifDifferentLabelLang}}{{#if vocabName }} {{ vocabName }} {{/if}} - • Chee, Q. W., & Goh, W. D. (2018). What explains the von Restorff effect? Contrasting distinctive processing and retrieval cue efficacy. Journal of Memory and Language, 99, 49–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2017.11.002