R. Reed Hunt

Who they are

Hunt is listed at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, on his 1995 paper in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. Von Restorff's paper had never been published in English, and Hunt had it translated, calling it a "widely cited but little read piece". He set out her method: ten-item lists, the isolated item in second or third position, ten minutes of reading prose, then free recall, with 70 per cent recall for the isolated item against 40 per cent in a control list where every item differed.

He then replicated it with 40 undergraduates, always placing the odd item second. Recall was 70 per cent for an isolated syllable and 80 per cent for an isolated digit, against 40 and 30 per cent in the control lists. Where modern theory emphasised perceptual salience and attention, Hunt argued that the effect depends on the similarity of the surrounding items and not on difference alone.

Key papers

Hunt, R. R. (1995). "The subtlety of distinctiveness: what von Restorff really did." Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 2(1), 105-112. doi:10.3758/BF03214414.

Key ideas

See The Von Restorff Effect.

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