Are not waiters' memory abilities the basis of the original Zeigarnik effect? DKH
On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Frantz, Sue <sfra...@highline.edu> wrote: > > The good folks at Improbable Research report on a study on the memory of > Buenos Aires waiters. > > ‘”Typical Buenos Aires senior waiters memorise all orders from clients and > take the orders, without written support, of as many as 10 persons per > table. They also deliver the order to each and every one of the customers > who ordered it without asking or checking.’” > > Researchers put some waiters to the test. Waiters took drink orders for 8 > patrons and did well delivering the drinks to the correct patron. Later the > patrons ordered another round of drinks. But this time, after their order > was taken, patrons changed seats. Only one of the nine waiters performed > flawlessly. All but the last waiter were using location as part of their > memory strategy. The last had spent years working cocktail parties where > people frequently changed location, so he doesn’t have location in his > repertoire. > > “In preparing their study, Bekinschtein, Cardozo and Manes discovered a > published account of a remarkable waiter who had trained himself to ‘recall > as many as 20 dinner orders, categorise the food (meat or starch) and link > it to the location in the table. He also used acronyms and words to encode > salad dressing, and visualised cooking temperature for each customer's meat > and linked it to the position on the table.’” > > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/aug/18/improbable-research-argentinian-waiters > > > > -- > Sue Frantz <http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/> > Highline Community College > Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA > 206.878.3710 x3404 sfra...@highline.edu > > Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director > > Project Syllabus <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> > > APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of > Psychology<http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> > > > > APA's p...@cc Committee <http://www.apa.org/ed/pcue/ptatcchome.html> > > > > > > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
