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Bluma Zeigarnik

Also Known As Zhenya Bluma Gershtein (birth name)
Cognitive Psychology

Bluma Zeigarnik was a Soviet psychologist and a member of the Berlin School of experimental psychology and the Vygotsky Circle, who contributed to establishing experimental psychopathology as a separate discipline in the Soviet Union after the Second World War. In the 1920s she conducted a study on memory comparing interrupted and completed tasks and found that interrupted tasks were remembered better, a finding now known as the Zeigarnik effect. From 1931 she worked in the Soviet Union and is considered one of the co-founders of the Department of Psychology at Moscow State University.

Facts
Birth Date
1900-11-09 1
Given in the Gregorian calendar; the Julian (Old Style) date is 27 October 1900.
Birth Year
1900 1
Death Date
1988-02-24 1
Death Year
1988 1
Birthplace
Prienai, Suwalki Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Lithuania) 1
Death Place
Moscow 1
Nationality / Culture
Soviet 1
Defining Contribution
Discovered the Zeigarnik effect, the finding that people remember interrupted or uncompleted tasks better than completed ones, and helped establish experimental psychopathology as a distinct discipline in the Soviet Union. 1
Notable Work
The Pathology of Thinking (1965) 1
Connections

Associated With

First documented the effect bearing her name: that people recall interrupted or incomplete tasks better than completed ones.

In Branch

Source Wikipedia: Bluma Zeigarnik
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Bluma Zeigarnik
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Early life and education section
    Zeigarnik was born as Ženya Bluma Gerštein (or Geršteinaitė) into a Jewish family in Prienai in Suwałki Governorate of the Russian Empire
  • Lead paragraph
    9 November [O.S. 27 October] 1900-24 February 1988
  • Later life section
    Zeigarnik died in Moscow on February 24, 1988.
  • Selected publications list
    1965: The Pathology of Thinking. New York: Consultants Bureau Enterprises.
  • Early life and education section, birth-name clause
    Zeigarnik was born as Ženya Bluma Gerštein (or Geršteinaitė) into a Jewish family in Prienai in Suwałki Governorate of the Russian Empire
  • Early life and education section, birthplace clause
    Zeigarnik was born as Ženya Bluma Gerštein (or Geršteinaitė) into a Jewish family in Prienai in Suwałki Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Lithuania)
  • Lead paragraph, occupation clause
    was a Soviet psychologist and a member of the Berlin School of experimental psychology and the so-called Vygotsky Circle.
  • Lead paragraph, memory-finding clause
    She had found that interrupted tasks are remembered better than completed ones; this is now known as the Zeigarnik effect.
  • In Branch: Social Psychology, Categories
    Wikipedia article 'Bluma Zeigarnik' is filed under Category:Social psychologists.
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