Bluma Zeigarnik

Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik (Russian: Блю́ма Ву́льфовна Зейга́рник; 9 November 1901 – 24 February 1988) was a Soviet psychologist and psychiatrist, a member of the Berlin School of experimental psychology and Vygotsky Circle. She discovered the Zeigarnik effect and contributed to the establishment of experimental psychopathology as a separate discipline in the Soviet Union in the post-World War II period.

In the 1920s she conducted a study on memory, in which she compared memory in relation to incomplete and complete tasks. She had found that incomplete tasks are easier to remember than successful ones. This is now known as the Zeigarnik effect. She later began working at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity,this was where she would meet her next big influence Vygowski, and become a part of his circle of scientists. It was also there that Ziegarnik founded the Department of Psychology. During that time, Ziegarnik received the Lewin Memorial Award in 1983 for her psychological research.

Zeigarnik was born and raised as Bluma Gerstein. She was born in Prenai, Lithuania to Volf and Ronya Gerstein, as their first and only child.Although her parents spoke some Yiddish, their primary language was Russian, as was hers. From a very young age Zeigarnik had a high regard for education. This showed in Zeigarnik's interest in wanting to continued her education Zeigarnik was one of the first Russian women to go to a university. She spent many hours in the library studying for University classes, it was there that she met her husband, Albert Zeigarnik and later married in 1919. In 1922 her husband Albert and herself left for Berlin, where he studied at Polytechnic Institute of Berlin and she began studies at the University of Berlin. It was here that she met Kurt Lewin, Zegarnik assisted him during her time of study at the University of Berlin. She then graduate from the University in 1925 and received a Doctoral degree from the university in 1927.

Born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in Prienai, Suwałki Governorate, Zeigarnik matriculated from the Berlin University in 1927. She described the Zeigarnik effect in a diploma prepared under the supervision of Kurt Lewin. In the 1930s, she worked with Lev Vygotsky at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (AUIEM, aka VIEM). During World War II, she assisted Alexander Luria in repairing head injuries. She was a co-founder of the Moscow State University Department of Psychology and the All-Russian Seminars in Psychopathology. She died in Moscow at the age of 86.

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