isolation effect

n. 1. In psychoanalysis, the process of detaching the emotional component from a memory and particularly traumatic memories, leaving the experience of the memory bland and flat. This is an essential component of obsessions and compulsions in psychoanalysis. 2. In learning, the observation that in learning a list, if one of the items is perceptually different, then it will be more easily learned and recalled. Also called the Von Restorff effect.