Glossary
Von Restorff Effect
What is the Von Restorff effect?
The Von Restorff effect, also called the isolation effect, is a memory advantage for an item that differs from otherwise similar items. It is named after Hedwig von Restorff's 1933 research.
How it works
Distinctiveness can help encoding and retrieval, but an unusual item may still go unnoticed when attention is occupied. The advantage depends on the task and comparison items.
Examples and possible applications
- Education: A teacher might distinguish a key concept from surrounding material. Whether that improves later recall needs to be checked.
- Advertising: An unusual layout might make an advertisement memorable. Memory for the ad and purchasing the product are different outcomes.
- Web design: A visually distinct button might attract attention. That is a design hypothesis, not proof of better understanding or more useful action.
Recall and recognition
The classic finding concerns recall of an isolated item. Recognition and source-memory effects depend on the design and test; they need not follow the same pattern.
Why it matters
Difference is relative to the surroundings. An item can stand out without being useful.