Von Restorff effect

The unusual condition was included to provide some control for von Restorff effects.

Mental images may be easier to remember if they are insulting, violent, or obscene (see Von Restorff effect).

Studies which use arousing stimuli as the items to be remembered often produce results which can be described simply in terms of von Restorff effects.

This would of course be analogous to the typical von Restorff effect in which a single distinctive item is better remembered than the rest of a list.

Isolation effect, also known as the Von Restorff effect, a psychological effect of distinctive items more easily 'remembered'

Firstly, if they are isolated unusual events, risky situations may be well remembered because of their distinctiveness in a way which is analogous to a von Restorff effect.

In modern terminology, the concept that salient, bizarre, shocking, or simply unusual information will be more easily remembered can be referred to as the Von Restorff effect.

Although the results from the unusual condition were slightly equivocal, the difference in results between the central and peripheral detail suggests that there is more than just a von Restorff effect present.

Changing from "right to wrong" may be more painful and memorable (Von Restorff effect), but it is probably a good idea to change an answer after additional reflection indicates that a better choice could be made.

The Von Restorff effect (named after psychiatrist and children's paediatrician Hedwig von Restorff 1906-1962), also called the isolation effect, predicts that an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" (called distinctive encoding) is more likely to be remembered than other items.

The observation that absurd images are easier to remember is known as the Von Restorff effect, although the success of this effect was refuted by several studies (Hock et al. 1978; Einstein 1987), which found that the established connection between the two words is more important than the image's absurdity.