The subtlety of distinctiveness: What von Restorff really did

Abstract

The isolation effect is a well-known memory phenomenon whose discovery is frequently attributed to von Restorff (1933). If all but one item of a list are similar on some dimension, memory for the different item will be enhanced. Modern theory of the isolation effect emphasizes perceptual salience and accompanying differential attention to the isolated item as necessary for enhanced memory. In fact, von Restorff, whose paper is not available in English, presented evidence that perceptual salience is not necessary for the isolation effect. She further argued that the difference between the isolated and surrounding items is not sufficient to produce isolation effects but must be considered in the context of similarity. Von Restorff's reasoning and data have implications for the use of distinctiveness in contemporary memory research, where distinctiveness is sometimes defined as perceptual salience and sometimes as a theoretical process of discrimination. As a theoretical construct, distinctiveness is a useful description of the effects of differences even in the absence of perceptual salience, but distinctiveness must be used in conjunction with constructs referring to similarity to provide an adequate account of the isolation effect and probably any other memory phenomena.

Construction and updating of event models in auditory event processing.

“…In contrast, if a specific item is part of multiple event models stored in memory and the task is to remember a specific event, retrieval interference impairs memory performance. Yet, EHM is silent with regard to the influence of distinctiveness (Hunt, 1995) of events on memory performance. Distinctiveness of an event increases with increasing number of changes at the adjacent boundaries.…”

Memory and judgment bias in retrospective evaluations

“…Item accessibility was boosted by increasing both temporal (e.g., Brown, Neath & Chater, 2007) and perceptual isolation (e.g., Hunt, 1995;Rabinowitz & Andrews, 1973). The latter was achieved by presenting target negative items in a red font -while all the other items were presented in a regular black font.…”

“…458). In a to-be-recalled list, items which are distinctive are usually better recalled than the surrounding items (e.g., Hulme, Neath, Stuart, Shostak, Surprenant, & Brown, 2006;Hunt, 1995;Hunt & Lamb, 2001;Nairne, 2005;Neath, Brown, McCormack, Chater, & Freeman, 2006).…”

“…For instance, distinctiveness (i.e. the extent to which a piece of information stands out against the background created by associated material; Neath & Surprenant, 2003) usually leads to a memory advantage in standard memory tasks (e.g., Hunt, 1995). If we were to adopt an approach to retrospective evaluations biases where memory plays an important role, then it could be suggested that the most intense moments of a just-experienced event are more likely to be distinctive -relative to the background of less intense moments comprising a given experience.…”

The Effects of a Health-Based Context on Memory for Advertisements

“…If there is dissimilarity found between the advertisement and its context, the advertisement will be perceived as more distinctive, which in turn will stand out, and will be remembered better (Hunt, 1995).…”