Review of the historical, empirical, and theoretical status of the von Restorff phenomenon.

Wallace, William P.

doi:10.1037/h0022001

Cited by 252 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…Uniqueness is examined because past research using diary studies suggests that intense emotional experiences are unique (Bower 1981), leading to the expectation that peak intensity incidents are more accessible than other incidents because they are uncommon, consistent with the von Restorff effect in memory (Wallace 1965). We argue that if a peak intensity event occurs in a temporal location of an experience that impedes memory, such as the center or end of an experience that is evaluated following a delay (Ashcraft 2002), then making that event unique will facilitate recall of the event and result in that event being heavily weighted in retrospective evaluations of the experience.…”

Section: Extended Abstractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Sequence Effects: A Memory Framework

Montgomery¹,

Unnava²

2009

J Consum Res

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While much attention has been given recently to studying temporal sequences of events, virtually no attention has been given to the underlying mechanism responsible for how people form global retrospective evaluations of temporal sequences. The findings from this research suggest that a memory-based framework can provide a parsimonious, comprehensive explanation for retrospective evaluations. In addition to accounting for past findings such as a preference for improving over declining temporal sequences and the important role of peak (both high intensity and unique) experiences, we demonstrate that imposing a delay prior to retrospective evaluations can create a preference reversal due to the reduced accessibility of final or common instances.

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Section: Extended Abstractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Sequence Effects: A Memory Framework

Montgomery¹,

Unnava²

2009

J Consum Res

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“…Driving this effect is the contextual distinctiveness of stimuli (Wallace, 1965), with mixed lists enhancing the relative salience (i.e., 'primary' distinctiveness), hence memorability, of unusual items (Schmidt, 1991).…”

Section: A Matter Of Design: Priming Context and Person Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A matter of design: Priming context and person perception

Macrae

Cloutier

2009

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…In the most recent review of this research, Wallace (1965) discussed three ways in which the von Restorff effect was studied. In the first, the experimenter performs some physical operation on the item so that it is unique in a given context.…”

Section: Historical Antecedentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can we have a distinctive theory of memory?

1991

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The current status of the concept of distinctiveness as applied to memory research is discussed. In spite of the fact that distinctiveness is difficult to define, an increasing number of memory phenomena have been explained in terms of distinctiveness. These phenomena are grouped into four classes, which vary in how distinctiveness is operationalized. Distinctiveness has different effects on memory performance, depending on how it is defined, suggesting that the concept of distinctiveness has been overapplied. In addition, current theoretical explanations of the effects of distinctiveness on memory fail to specify what the different definitions of distinctiveness have in common, and fail to encompass adequately the broad range of phenomena to be explained. A limited theory of distinctiveness is proposed, in order to explain why conceptually incongruent material is remembered well.The unusual, bizarre, or distinctive event seems inherently more memorable than common, everyday occurrences. Psychologists often refer to this phenomenon as the von Restorff (1933) effect. The effects of distinctiveness on memory are exploited in textbooks in which major concepts are printed in bold print, and in virtually every form of advertising in which loud music, bright colors, or other distinctive stimuli scream for our attention. Recently, memory researchers have invoked the concept of distinctiveness to explain an increasing range of phenomena, from detailed memory of the space shuttle explosion (McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen 1988) to enhanced memory of concrete words (Marschark, Richman, Yuille, & Hunt, 1987). Unfortunately, the features shared by the many faces of distinctiveness have not been specified, and the mechanisms responsible for the effects of distinctiveness on memory have not been delineated.The current status of research concerning the effects of distinctiveness on memory is reviewed below. For the sake of brevity, this review will be restricted to a discussion of long-term memory performance. Many of the issues that will be raised, however, could easily be applied to research concerning short-term memory performance as well. A brief historical review of distinctiveness in memory research will be followed by an analysis of the definition of distinctiveness. Several criteria will be selected that should enable us to classify previous operational definitions of distinctiveness. The different classes of distinctiveness do not lead to a common set or pattern of results, and thus they do not converge on a common hypothetical construct. Prominent theoretical frameworks will be considered, but none of the theories encompasses the many faces of distinctiveness. A more limited definition of distinctiveness will be proposed, and a theoretical framework for the effects of distinctiveness, based on this limited definition, will be presented. HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTSThe distinctiveness hypothesis is a direct descendent of the von Restorff effect, which was investigated extensively in the 1950s and 60s. In the most recent review of...

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Review of the historical, empirical, and theoretical status of the von Restorff phenomenon.

Cited by 252 publications

References 56 publications

Temporal Sequence Effects: A Memory Framework

Temporal Sequence Effects: A Memory Framework

A matter of design: Priming context and person perception

Can we have a distinctive theory of memory?

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