The human mind has a special place for the bizarre. In fact, the more unusual, humorous, eccentric or noticeably individualistic any bit of data may be, the better chance the brain has of putting a thumb on it, according to the Von Restorff effect, named after psychiatrist and children’s pediatrician Hedwig von Restorff.
The Von Restorff Effect
Simply stated, the more something “stands out like a sore thumb”, the more retainable and/or accessible it is in the memory. This effect has been illustrated in students since they could crawl. From the Sesame Street songs of “one of these things is not like the others,” to the conscious aesthetic design that drives most marketing–think early Apple commercials with the iconic white logo on neon backdrops–our brains are programmed to notice that which does not blend in.
This bias in memory depends on the enhanced awareness of visual, auditory or otherwise dissimilar cues that pique the conscious mind, drawing its notice from the nulls of the norm.
In Practice
From the use of bold fonts in a sea of complex notes to the student in the back of the class with the purple hair, different is desirable in terms of memory recollection. Many students already implement the Von Restorff effect, also known as the isolation effect, in their study habits. Take, for example, highlighting lines in a textbook. This technique is the perfect microcosm for the Von Restorff Effect as a whole.
On a large scale, this effect explains why grotesque, challenging or traumatic patient experiences may naturally surface in the minds of medical professionals who’ve witnessed countless symptoms, typical conditions, sat through hours of lectures and filled the archives of their memory with medical factoids.
For Your Advantage
Picmonic harnesses the power of the Von Restorff effect in every USMLE Step 1 study slide. Humorous and irregular characters like the Pencil Villain (penicillin) stamp their mnemonic footprints on med students’ memories. Rather than relying on rote memorization of a sea of black and white copy, Picmonic users’ minds are flooded with images so abnormal they are unforgettable. Picmonic: the Von Restorff effect at its finest — and by finest, we mean both weirdest and most effective. Try Picmonic for free, and give your brain the tools it needs to pull extraordinary Step 1 scores.
About the author: Jenna Lee Dillon writes about the topics that interest her most: food, women’s health, food, how to be a Super Brain hero, food, travel, books and food. She was once called a Grammar Nerd and thought it was a compliment.
