The Founding Fathers of Psychology Unit 4 project
The Founding Fathers of Psychology PS210 Kaplan University Professor, Nichola Cohan Jaclyn Gosciak July 1, 2013
In this paper, I will discuss psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus and his contributions to the psychology field. Which then I will evaluate his contributions and explain their importance to psychology today. Ebbinghaus is well known for his discovery of the forgetting curve. Ebbingahus has made several other significant contributions to psychology for example: he was the first person to use nonsense syllables in learning and research, which I will discuss throughout this paper.
Ebbinghaus born in Germany in 1850, he received his degree in philosophy in 1873. He used himself as a test subject and began experimenting with memory in the 1870s. Furthermore, Hermann Ebbbinghaus was the first psychologist to experiment with both memory and learning. In 1878, he conducted his first set of memory experiments. In 1885, he published his groundbreaking Uber das Gedchtins (on memory), in which he describes experiments he had conducted on himself to describe the process of forgetting. This is considered one of the most influential psychology texts in print today (Hermann Ebbinghaus, 2008).
Ebbinghaus testing was in contrast to the idea of Wilhelm Wundt who believed that memory experiments were not possible. This was important for many reasons first, before this it was not believed memory could be studied. The first aspect that Ebbinghaus challenged was using scientific approach to study memory. He believed that there was a higher cognitive process that could be scientifically studied using this believes he developed methods of self-study using him as both tester and the tested.
Although for him to test his own memory, he made up 2,300 fictitious words (Shultz, 2012). The words consisted of one syllable, a vowel, followed by one more syllable. The words were important because they were not real, so therefore
In this paper, I will discuss psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus and his contributions to the psychology field. Which then I will evaluate his contributions and explain their importance to psychology today. Ebbinghaus is well known for his discovery of the forgetting curve. Ebbingahus has made several other significant contributions to psychology for example: he was the first person to use nonsense syllables in learning and research, which I will discuss throughout this paper.
Ebbinghaus born in Germany in 1850, he received his degree in philosophy in 1873. He used himself as a test subject and began experimenting with memory in the 1870s. Furthermore, Hermann Ebbbinghaus was the first psychologist to experiment with both memory and learning. In 1878, he conducted his first set of memory experiments. In 1885, he published his groundbreaking Uber das Gedchtins (on memory), in which he describes experiments he had conducted on himself to describe the process of forgetting. This is considered one of the most influential psychology texts in print today (Hermann Ebbinghaus, 2008).
Ebbinghaus testing was in contrast to the idea of Wilhelm Wundt who believed that memory experiments were not possible. This was important for many reasons first, before this it was not believed memory could be studied. The first aspect that Ebbinghaus challenged was using scientific approach to study memory. He believed that there was a higher cognitive process that could be scientifically studied using this believes he developed methods of self-study using him as both tester and the tested.
Although for him to test his own memory, he made up 2,300 fictitious words (Shultz, 2012). The words consisted of one syllable, a vowel, followed by one more syllable. The words were important because they were not real, so therefore
References: Schultz, D.P. & Schultz, S.E. (2011). A History of Modern Psychology. Belmont, CA. Wadsworth.