蔡氏效应The Zeigarnik Effect
作者: 鲍迈斯特 / 23971次阅读 时间: 2013年11月21日
来源: 意志力 标签: 蔡氏效应 格式塔 心理学家 蔡加尼克效应
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e$ej^l!Yh0根据心理学家之间流传的说法,这一效应的发现始于20世纪20年代中期柏林大学附近的一顿午餐。柏林带血一群人去餐厅吃饭,都对同一个服务员下单。这个服务员没有用纸笔记录,只是不断点头。最后,他给每个人端来的东西都没错。他超强的记忆力让这一群人大为惊叹。大家吃完饭后,离开了餐厅。其中有个人(不清楚到底是谁)发现自己把东西落在了餐厅,于是回去取。他找到那个服务员,希望服务员超强的记忆力能够帮到他。

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但是,服务员什么都记不起来。他不知道这个客人是谁,更不用说记得这个客人坐在哪儿。丢东西的人文服务员为何这么快就忘掉了一切,服务员解释说他只是把每个单子一直记到上菜之时。心理学空间Z {$nq H U {

$yl4xdA@t)FF0那群吃饭的人中有个年轻的心理学学生,她是俄国人,名叫布卢玛·泽伊加尔尼克(Bluma Zeigarnik),她的导师就是很有影响力的思想家库尔特·勒温(Kurt Lewin)。勒温听说了这个事情后,就思考背后是不是有个更—般的原则。人类记忆是否严格区分已完成的任务和未完成的任务?他们开始观察那些做拼图游戏时被打断的人。他们的研究,以及接下来几十年的很多研究,证实了著名的“蔡氏效应”,(Zegarnik effect):任务未完成、目标未实现,脑子里就会有个声音不断提醒你去完成任务、实现目标。然而,一旦任务完成了、目标实现了,脑子里的那个声音就会消失。心理学空间5tu@,G4ZY-g

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有个简单办法可以帮助你理解蔡氏效应。随便选一首歌曲播放给自己听,中途关掉,那么这首歌曲就很有可能不时地在你脑中自动播放。如果你把歌曲播放完了,那么大脑就将之“结项”(打个比方啊)。然而,如果你中途关掉,那么大脑就把歌曲看做未完成事务,就像提醒你还有工作要做—样,大脑会不断在你的思维流里插人歌曲片段。就是因为这个原因,演员比尔·默里(Bill Murray)在电影《士拨鼠日》(Groundhog Day)中不断关掉收音机闹钟的铃声—《你是我的,宝贝》,这首歌曲不断在他脑中播放(不断把他逼疯)。就是因为这个原因,这种“耳朵虫”往往令人讨厌而非愉悦。我们更可能在中途关掉讨厌的歌曲,所以萦绕在我们脑中的多是讨厌的歌曲。

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*W%PH7o jC/dJ1D*oc0为什么大脑用“你是我的,宝贝”折磨自己呢?心理学家—般假定,“耳朵虫”是一个有用功能的不良副产品,这个功能就是“任务提醒”。多年以来,对于蔡氏效应是如何形成的,有多个理论解释过,这些理论大致分为两派,各派依据的假定互相竞争。一派依据的假定是,无意识脑一直在跟踪了解进展、确保目标实现,所以这些不时冒出的有意识思维实际上是个让人放心的迹象,说明你的无意识脑在目标实现之前会一直帮你盯着。另外一派依据的假定是,无意识脑在向有意识脑求助:就像小孩拽着大人袖子争取关注和帮助一样,无意识脑在催促有意识脑去完成任务。

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*n'[ VESD[0但是,现在新出现了一个更好的解释,这多亏了E·J·马西坎波(E.J.Masicampo)最近做的一些实验。马西坎波是佛罗里达州立大学研究生,与鲍迈斯特合作过。在一项研究中,他让—些学生想最重要的期末考试,让另外一些学生(对照组)想各自日程上不久将要参加的最重要的派对。然后他让一半想考试的学生作计划’具体到何时、何地学习什么。不过,实验期间,没人真的学习。

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4Md~.@ MFwm0接着,他让每个人完成一个任务,这个任务隐含一个测评蔡氏效应的测验。他给他们一些不完整的单词,指导他们把单词补充完整。这些不完整的单词,可以补充成与学习有关的单词,也可以补充成与学习无关的单词。例如,re可以补充成read,也可以补充成real、rest、reap和reek。同样,ex可以补充成exam,也可以补充成exit。如果一个人老想着未完成的任务而为考试学习,那么这个人就会因为蔡氏效应生成较多与考试有关的单词。确实,马西坎波发现这些单词更常闯人其中一组人的大脑,即那组被提醒过要考试但没有为考试制订学习计划的人。为考试制订了学习计划的人,没有出现这样的效应。尽管他们也被提醒过要考试,但是他们的大脑显然被写下计划这个动作清空了。

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'~oD/e:R^0在另外一个实验中,马西坎波要求被试者反思生活中的重要任务。让他们一些被试者写下最近刚刚完成的一些任务,让另一些被试者写下没有完成且需要尽快完成的一些任务,让第三组被试者也写下未完成的任务,但是还让他们就如何完成这些任务制订具体计划。然后,他让每个人再做—个“独立、无关的”(他对被试者是这么说的)实验:阅读一本小说的前10页。在他们阅读期间,他定时检查看看他们是否分心了。在他们阅读之后,他问他们阅读时有多专心,如果分心了,是在哪里分心的。他还检查他们对所读材料的理解情况。心理学空间mnL)iW,{g

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再次,制订计划起作用了。那些写下未完成任务的人,更难专心阅读小说——除非他们就完成任务制定了具体计划。写下未完成任务同时制定具体计划的人报告的分心次数较少,在阅读理解测验上得分较高。心理学空间4HR|&n9x"{dWk

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所以,蔡氏效应原来并不像心理学家几十年来假设的那样是个直到任务完成才消失的提醒音,不时的分心、并不表明无意识脑在监控任务进展,也不表明无意识脑在督促有意识脑完成任务。相反,无意识脑在催眠有意识脑制订计划。无意识脑显然不能独立做这个事情,所以它催促有意识脑去做,把时间、地点和机会之类的细节想清楚。一旦计划出来了,无意识脑就不再用提醒音促进有意识脑。

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H(cj1YhF^mX0艾伦的GTD就是这样处理他所说的“心猿”问题的。如果你像他的典型客户一样,任务清单上至少有150个条目,那么蔡氏效应会让你的思维一会儿跳到这个任务,一会儿跳到那个任务,而且仅仅列出大体上做什么,你是静不下心的。如果你有个备忘录必须在星期四早上开会之前看,那么无意识脑就想知道下步需要做什么、在什么情况下做。但是一且制订了具体计划——且把备忘录放在星期三的到期票据登记簿中。一且确定了下步行动,你就能放松下来。你不必马上完成任务,你的任务清单上仍然有150件事情要做,但是此刻猴子消停了、水平静了。心理学空间q4Vt5CW"M!^


b9dB EcR0Bluma Zeigarnik with her husband Albert Zeigarnik before arriving in Berlin.
c-_"Y'Qm_2Ux0The picture was taken in Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania, in 1919-1920.
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MR;Jpl%h%c H0The Zeigarnik Effect心理学空间h8}f#W-Q1da

^$f{!\8u0s[1Fb0 The discovery began, according to the legend among psychologists, with a lunch in the mid-1920s near the University of Berlin. A large group from the university went to a restaurant and placed their orders with a single waiter, who didn’t bother writing anything down. He simply nodded. Yet he served everyone’s food correctly, a feat of memory that impressed the group. They finished eating and left the restaurant, whereupon one person (the legend is unclear on exactly who) returned to retrieve an item that had been left behind. The person spotted the waiter and asked for help, hoping to benefit from his obviously excellent memory.

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But the waiter looked back blankly. He had no idea who the patron was, much less where the person had sat. When asked how he could have forgotten everything so quickly, the water explained that he remembered each order only until it was served.心理学空间t4B)n ^C y!Y.gJi{W%?

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One of the scholars, a young Russian psychology student named Bluma Zeigarnik, and her mentor, the influential thinker Kurt Lewin, pondered this experience and wondered if it pointed to a more general principle. Did the human memory make a strong distinction between finished and unfinished tasks? They began observing people who were interrupted while doing jigsaw puzzles. This research, and many studies in the following decades, confirmed what became known as the Zeigarnik effect: Uncompleted tasks and unmet goals tend to pop into one’s mind. Once the task is completed and the goal reached, however, this stream of reminders comes to a stop.心理学空间W_\1O9f/U9D

!\SA8I ]f_0A good way to appreciate the Zeigarnik effect is to listen to a randomly chosen song and shut it off halfway through. The song is then likely to run through your mind on its own, at odd intervals. If you get to the end of the song, the mind checks it off, so to speak. If you stop it in the middle, however, the mind treats the song as unfinished business. As if to keep reminding you that there is a job to be done, the mind keeps inserting bits of the song into your stream of thought. That’s why when Bill Murray in Groundhog Day keeps shutting off “I Got You Babe” on his clock radio, the tune keeps going through our minds (and keeps driving him crazy). And that’s why this kind of ear worm is so often an awful tune rather than a pleasant one. We’re more likely to turn off the bad one in midsong, so it’s the one that returns to haunt us.心理学空间6?P1Ok#a8C NY"l

!gH!S5p)o@)NIl0Why would the mind inflict “I Got You Babe” on itself? Psychologists have generally assumed that earworms are an unfortunate byproduct of an otherwise useful function: the completion of tasks. How the Zeigarnik effect works has been explained by various theories over the years, including two rival hypotheses that dominated the debate. One hypothesis was that the unconscious mind is keeping track of your goals and working to make sure they’re accomplished, so these stray conscious thoughts are actually a reassuring sign that your unconscious will stay on the case until the job is done. The rival hypothesis was that the unconscious mind is seeking help from the conscious mind: Like a small child tugging at the sleeve of an adult to get attention and help, the unconscious mind is telling the conscious mind to finish the task.

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T]}MZFVW$g%y4h3o0But now there’s a newer and better explanation for the Zeigarnik effect, thanks to some recent experiments conducted by E. J. Masicampo, a graduate student at Florida State working with Baumeister. In one study, he assigned some students to think about their most important final examination. Others, in a control condition, thought about the most important party pending on their social calendar. Among the ones who thought about the exam, half were also told to make specific plans of what, where, and when they would study. But nobody did any actual studying during the experiment.心理学空间?5Dd Q @IFv.Z

uZ[a ?1fIx\0Then everyone performed a task that contained a subtle measure of the Zeigarnik effect. They were given word fragments and instructed to complete them. The fragments were artfully constructed so that they could be completed with words relevant to studying—but also with alternative, irrelevant words. For instance, the item re_ _ could be completed as read but also be made into real, rest, reap, and reek. Likewise, ex_ _ could be completed as exam but also as exit. If thoughts of the unfulfilled task of studying for the exam were on the person’s mind, he or she would be expected to generate more exam-related words due to the Zeigarnik effect. And indeed, Masicampo found that these words popped more often into the minds of some people: the ones who had been reminded of the exam but hadn’t made plans to study for it. But no such effect was observed among the students who’d made a study plan. Even though they, too, had been reminded of the exam, their minds had apparently been cleared by the act of writing down a plan.

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j5E`1SB-{;\V a \0In another experiment, participants were asked to reflect on important projects in their lives. Some were told to write about some tasks they had recently completed. Others were told to write about tasks that were unfulfilled and needed to be done soon. A third group was also told to write about unfulfilled tasks, but also to make specific plans for how they would get these done. Then everyone went on to what they were told was a separate and unrelated experiment. They were assigned to read the first ten pages of a novel. As they read, they were checked periodically to ascertain whether their minds were wandering from the novel. Afterward, they were asked how well they had focused and where, if anywhere, their minds had wandered. They also were tested on how well they understood what they’d read.心理学空间'? yCXm\o6D

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Once again, making a plan made a difference. Those who’d written about unfulfilled tasks had more trouble keeping their minds focused on the novel—unless they’d made a specific plan to complete the task, in which case they reported relatively little mind wandering and scored quite well on the reading comprehension test. Even though they hadn’t finished the task or made any palpable progress, the simple act of making a plan had cleared their minds and eliminated the Zeigarnik effect. But the Zeigarnik effect remained for the students without a plan. Their thoughts wandered from the novel to their undone tasks, and afterward they scored worse on the comprehension test.心理学空间;U|QmXmKF,s*i

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So it turns out that the Zeigarnik effect is not, as was assumed for decades, a reminder that continues unabated until the task gets done. The persistence of distracting thoughts is not an indication that the unconscious is working to finish the task. Nor is it the unconscious nagging the conscious mind to finish the task right away. Instead, the unconscious is asking the conscious mind to make a plan. The unconscious mind apparently can’t do this on its own, so it nags the conscious mind to make a plan with specifics like time, place, and opportunity. Once the plan is formed, the unconscious can stop nagging the conscious mind with reminders.

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That’s how Allen’s system deals with the problem that he calls monkey mind. If, like his typical client, you’ve got at least 150 items on your to-do list, the Zeigarnik effect could leave you leaping from task to task, and it won’t be sedated by vague good intentions. If you’ve got a memo that has to be read before a meeting Thursday morning, the unconscious wants to know exactly what needs to be done next, and under what circumstances. But once you make that plan—once you put the meeting memo in the tickler file for Wednesday, once you specify the very next action to be taken on the project—you can relax. You don’t have to finish the job right away. You’ve still got 150 things on the to-do list, but for the moment the monkey is still, and the water is calm.心理学空间0P#@rB;W2j Rk"e

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2013-12-16 09:31:04 心理空间心理空间

蔡加尼克效应


@北师大心理学院: 蔡加尼克效应,蔡加尼克是格式塔学派代表、著名的实验社会心理学家勒温在德国收的学生,勒温到了美国之后又收了几个学生,比如提出了认知失调的费斯廷格和提出了归因理论的海德。勒温英年早逝很少出现在公众视野,但是勒温的徒子徒孙是推动实验社会心理学发展的主要力量。
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