The Ovsiankina effect is the tendency to pick up an interrupted action again when it has still not been achieved. It is named after its researcher,
Maria Ovsiankina.
The effect states that an interrupted task, even without incentive, values as a "quasi-need". It creates
intrusive thoughts
An intrusive thought is an unwelcome, involuntary thought, image, or unpleasant idea that may become an obsession, is upsetting or distressing, and can feel difficult to manage or eliminate. When such thoughts are associated with obsessive-compu ...
, aimed at taking up the task again and possibly resulting into
cognitive dissonance
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environmen ...
.
This can be explained by
Kurt Lewin's field theory, which points that an interrupted action is a condition for a strained
system
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and express ...
. It also leads to a better remembering of the unfinished action over a vacant one (
Zeigarnik effect
Named after Lithuanian-Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, in psychology the Zeigarnik effect occurs when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. It postulates that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks bette ...
).
See also
*
Human multitasking
Human multitasking is the concept that one can split their attention on more than one task or activity at the same time, such as speaking on the phone while driving a car. Multitasking can result in time wasted due to human context switching an ...
*
Rumination (psychology)
Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions, according to the ''Response Styles Theory'' proposed by Nolen-Hoeksema (1998).
Because the Respo ...
References
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Psychological effects