Editing Von Restorff effect (section)

{{Short description|Theory that stimulus which differs the most from a group is remembered the most}}
{{About|the effect|the song by the Caretaker|Persistent Repetition of Phrases{{!}}''Persistent Repetition of Phrases''}}
The '''Von Restorff effect''', also known as the "'''isolation effect'''", predicts that when multiple homogeneous stimuli are presented, the stimulus that differs from the rest is more likely to be remembered.<ref name="Parker1998"/> The theory was coined by German psychiatrist and pediatrician [[Hedwig von Restorff]] (1906–1962), who, in her 1933 study, found that when participants were presented with a list of categorically similar items with one distinctive, isolated item on the list, memory for the item was improved.<ref name="vonRestorff1933"/>

The study utilized the ''isolation paradigm'', which refers to a distinctive feature of an item in a list that differs from the others by way of dimension. Such distinctiveness, leading to the von Restorff effect, can be generated from changing the meaningfulness or physical nature of the stimulus in some way, such as in size, shape, color, spacing and underlining.