Doesn’t it seem, though that once you finished your break and completed your studying that you would close the loop and dump the info from your mind again? Or is that just me?

hmmm… I was a waitress for 10 years. I kind of agree with this, I recognized it as a skill many years ago. Ha..! Waiting table is ALL about “closing the loop”, one after another, for hours, until the last customer.

You take the order, run around and do your thing, until the order comes up. Yes, there is a sort of tension… Table #8 is hanging around in your mind, until you get them served.

However, while alot of tension is relieved upon serving the food, the tension doesn’t completely disappear until the check is paid and the customer leaves.

Depends on how define the completedness of a given task…

Also, I could remember specific orders for days aftewards, but only if reminded or questioned about an order.

If you’re expecting a coffee refill in Vienna (Austria), you can wait a long time, because you won’t get one in Europe. I guess the story was made up by some silly american. :-)

Re-fill sounds like re-cycling - and that’s the way coffee tastes in places you get a refill. ;-) (and the meal before, too)

“Europe” is a big place now. The coffee re-fill, or “påtår”, is an old and cherished tradition in Sweden (and other places in the north?). Modern continental coffee houses are frowned upon when not offering this.

If that’s truly the case, I can think of a few tasks right now that I can’t wait to forget all about.

The same idea applies to cashiers as well. You remember how much change you need to come up with, but as soon as you hand it to the customer, it’s done. Two seconds later if someone were to ask you the amount of change you’d just given someone, you’d have no idea.

FINALLY, science explains why turning the alarm clock off mid-song = that song is stuck in my head all day.

As an undergrad in cognitive psych, my advisor told me that since the original study, researchers trying to reproduce the Zeigarnik effect have had varied results. Experimental studies still have not determined the characteristics of tasks (tasks to be performed vs tasks to be recalled verbally, length of task—seconds vs minutes, etc.) which may show this effect.

Utter nonsense! I mean, it’s pretty obvious that the fatal flaw in this little premise is OH WOW! My coworker just brought in donuts!

Heh…. I guess this explains this popular article :) I wonder if “do 10 things at the same time” is a good productivity tip, as far as I know all the sources on productivity say you should ocncentrate on one activity.

Whenever I’m reading a book, I never put it down at the end of a chapter. I always stop a few paragraphs before. I’ve found that I can much better recall what was going on when I pick it up again - this explains why.