Zeigarnik Effect

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Audio question

1. AThe lecturer argues that the Zeigarnik effect is one of the most robustly replicated findings in psychology and recommends that listeners always stop work mid-sentence, since later studies have consistently confirmed that unfinished tasks are remembered better regardless of how motivated people are to complete them.
2. BZeigarnik's laboratory work in Berlin showed that participants remembered the tasks they had completed about twice as often as those they were interrupted on, because finishing a task gives it a satisfying sense of closure that fixes it in memory. This explains why waiters remember orders so well after the bill is paid.
3. CPrompted by observing waiters who forgot orders once they were paid, Zeigarnik ran experiments showing that people recalled interrupted tasks about twice as well as finished ones, which she attributed to lingering mental tension. The effect has inspired cliffhangers and productivity tips, though replication results are mixed and the effect depends on participants' motivation.
4. DThe lecture describes how restaurants in 1920s Berlin trained waiters to memorise complex orders without writing them down, and how this professional skill later inspired television writers to structure episodes around cliffhangers. Zeigarnik studied these waiters for several years before concluding that memory for orders improves with experience.

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Source: Pearson, PTE Academic & UKVI test format, Part 3: Listening, checked 9 October 2026.