When talking about 19th-century psychologists, most people think of only the names of Sigmund Freud, who was overly enthusiastic about the problems of human sexuality, and Friedrich Nietzsche, who was extremely self-confident. However, besides them, there were many other equally talented, but more modest scientists, whose contribution to the development of the science of the properties of the human brain is invaluable. Among them is the German experimenter Hermann Ebbinghaus. Let's find out who he is and what humanity owes him.
Who is Herman Ebbinghaus?
This German scientist, who lived in the second half of the nineteenth century, was one of the first in history to study memory and human perception through practical experiments that he put on himself.
More than a hundred years have passed since his death, but Ebbinghaus' discoveries remain relevant today and are actively used by scientists around the world. And so far no one has been able to surpass his methods.
Early yearsscientist
Hermann Ebbinghaus (Ebbinghaus) was born in the Prussian town of Barmen (now German Wuppertal) on January 24, 1850
The father of the future scientist, Karl Ebbinghaus, was a very successful Lutheran merchant and hoped that his offspring would continue the family business.
However, young Herman was not interested in the exact sciences, but in the humanities and natural sciences. In fairness, it should be noted that Hermann Ebbinghaus also understood well in mathematics and related disciplines, which helped him in his scientific work in the future.
Therefore, against the wishes of the parent, the young man decided to devote himself to science.
Ebbinghaus' first scientific work
When Herman was seventeen years old, he easily entered the University of Bonn, where he intended to devote himself to the study of philology and history. But soon the young man found a more entertaining hobby for himself - philosophy.
Why her? The fact is that at that time, sciences a la psychology, pedagogy and the like had not yet acquired the full-fledged separate status that they have today. Therefore, in most universities they were in charge of philosophy.
Three years later, Otto von Bismarck (seeking to unite all German lands together) forced Prussia to go to war with Napoleon III's France. Being at draft age, Ebbinghauser was forced to leave his studies and go to fight at the front.
Fate took care of the future scientific luminary - he survived and pretty soon was able to return to civilian life, continuing his studies at his native university.
By 1873Hermann Ebbingaz wrote his first scientific work based on Eduard von Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unconscious.
This dissertation was so fresh and entertaining that Ebbinghaus received his Ph. D. at the age of twenty-three. Many have pointed out that while many of the ideas in this work were based on von Hartmann's findings, it was not a copy. Since the author expressed his own original judgment, which no one dared to before him.
Searching for a calling
After graduating from university, a young scientist decides to concentrate on studying the characteristics of human psychology. In 1879, Ebbinghaus went to Berlin, where he received a teaching position at the university. Here he opens his own psychic laboratory, as was fashionable in the scientific community of the time.
In his spare time from teaching, the newly minted PhD lectures in France and later in the south of the UK. It was in this country that the scientist was lucky to find his calling.
During another visit to London, Ebbinghaus visited a used bookshop. So, among the dusty shelves, he accidentally discovered a volume of "Elements of Psychophysics" by Gustav Fechner. It was this book, according to the scientist himself, that inspired him to start experiments on the study of human memory.
Ebbinghaus experiments
Like most of his great predecessors, as an object for scientific experiments, this scientist chose himself, or rather his brain. For two years he through trial and errordeveloped his own method.
Hermann Ebbinghaus compiled 2,300 cards with three-letter syllables that had no lexical or associative meaning. Thus, the brain was not able to understand them and memorization was reduced to banal cramming. The use of these so-called nonsensical syllables meant that the experimenter's brain had not previously encountered them and could not know them.
For specially allotted periods of time, the scientist memorized the contents of the cards by repeating aloud syllables chosen in random order. To simplify this process, the experimenter used a metronome or the rosary method. This helped to measure the exact amount of material being studied.
Further, Ebbinghaus tested his results by other variations of his first experience, thus revealing various properties of human memory (forgetting time and learning, the amount of information learned and forgotten, subconscious memory and the influence of emotions on memorization).
Based on many years of experiments of this kind, the method of "Meaningless Syllables" by Hermann Ebbinghaus was formulated, which became revolutionary for that time. It is believed that a full-fledged experimental psychology began its history precisely with the experiments of this scientist. By the way, today many psychologists continue to use his methods in their research.
On Memory by Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) and later work
Based on the results of his many years of experiments, Ebbinghaus wrote the book Über das Gedächtnis. Untersuchungen zur experellen Psychologie, which brought him recognition and wide recognition among scientists around the world.
It was soon translated into English as Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. In Russian translation, this work is known as "On Memory".
Hermann Ebbinghaus, thanks to his work, received not only recognition, but also a certain financial stability. Thanks to this, he was able to leave his job at the University of Berlin, where his career did not develop very successfully. The fact is that he ignored the need for constant writing of theoretical articles, due to constant employment in the laboratory. Therefore, he could not get the coveted position of the head of the Faculty of Philosophy, which was given to another teacher.
After leaving Berlin, the scientist soon finds a job at the Polish University in Breslau (now Wroclaw), which specializes in studying the reduction of the amount of sown material in schoolchildren.
Based on the results and methods used in the experiments of Ebbinghaus and his other colleagues from Breslau, Alfred Binet's method of testing children's mental abilities was subsequently formed and the now known Binet-Simon intelligence scale was created.
Further career
The results of research in the new laboratory Ebbinghaus shared with the public in 1902, publishing Die Grundzüge der Psychologie ("Fundamentals of Psychology").
This book made him even more famous and forever changed the face of the science of psychology. According to contemporaries, the books of Hermann Ebbinghaus forever buried the psychology of the 1890s.
The last years of Ebbinghaus
Two years after the publication of "Principles of Psychology", their author and his family left Poland and returned to their homeland, in Halle. Here he spent the last years of his life.
In 1908, the scientist publishes his new work Abriss der Psychologie ("Sketches on Psychology"), which again confirmed the genius of Ebbinghaus and was reprinted eight times during the author's lifetime.
Such success inspired the experimenter to continue his experiments, however, he was not destined to realize his plan.
In the winter of 1909, Hermann Ebbinghaus fell ill with a cold. Soon, this disease developed into pneumonia, and on February 26, the great scientist died.
Among his descendants, the son of Ebbinghaus, Julius, achieved the greatest success, though not in psychology, but in philosophy, becoming one of the most famous adherents of Kant.
Ebbinghaus innovations
Despite her short life (59 years), this scientist made a lot of important discoveries that influenced her future development of science.
- The researcher was the first to study the optical delusions of the organs of vision, having discovered the so-called Ebbinghaus illusion - the dependence of the perception of the size of an object on the surrounding objects.
- Also coined the term "forgetting curve". Herman Ebbinghaus so called the line that characterizes the time of forgetting. According toresearch scientist 40% of the data is forgotten within the next 20 minutes. An hour later, the amount of information "lost" by the brain is already equal - 50%, and the next day - 70%.
- Ebbinghaus discovered that meaningful information remembers better than data that the brain does not understand.
- Proved the importance of repetition in learning new things.
- He also discovered the "learning curve".
- Ebbinghaus introduced several new methods of memory development into science: “memorization”, “anticipation” and “saving”.
