Hermann Ebbinghaus: Biography Of This German Psychologist And Philosopher
Hermann Ebbinghaus is widely known in the world of psychology. This important psychologist and philosopher was one of the first to use scientific methodology in the study and analysis of higher cognitive ability. Ebbinghaus made various contributions to the world of psychology, being especially relevant for being a pioneer in the study of memory.
In this article we are going to see a brief biography of Hermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus was born on January 24, 1850, in the Prussian city of Barmen. The son of wealthy merchant Carl Ebbinghaus and Julie Ebbinghaus, he was raised in a wealthy environment and in the Lutheran faith. What he followed next was one of the most notable research careers in the history of psychology.
Early years: training and military service
In 1867 a young Hermann Ebbinghaus would begin his university studies at the University of Bonn, interested in history and philology. However, during the course of his studies his interests ended up focusing on philosophy.
In 1870 he had to leave them temporarily to serve in the army in the Franco-Prussian War, after which he would resume his studies. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1873, having prepared a thesis based on the philosophy of the unconscious (from Hartmann’s philosophical approach).
After obtaining his doctorate, Ebbinghaus would make trips to England and France, where would continue training and carrying out different experiments while working as a tutor. During this time he would learn about Fechner’s work based on psychophysics, becoming convinced that it was possible to study higher mental processes from a scientific and reliable perspective.
Thus, he would begin to be interested in what has turned out to be one of the most important and notable contributions of Ebbinghaus in the field of psychology: his studies on memory In fact, he is considered the father of the scientific study of memory.
Marriage, offspring and publication of “On Memory”
Personally, in 1884 Ebbinghaus He would marry Adelheid Julia Amalia Görlitz A year later, their son, Julius Ebbinghaus, would be born, who would eventually become an important neo-Kantian philosopher. That same year, in 1885, Ebbinghaus would publish one of his most representative works, “Über das Gedächtnis” (“On Memory”), in which he reflected his studies in this subject.
Research on memory, vision and learning
Memory was not the only aspect that Ebbinghaus investigated. In 1890 he would begin to be interested in and work on the sense of sight, specifically the perception of color. Together with König he would found the publication Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane, focused on sensory perception from both a psychological and physiological perspective. In this aspect The study of optical illusions also stands out discovering that the perception of the size of an object varies according to the size of those around it.
Four years later he would enter the race for the direction of the philosophy department at the University of Berlin, which was awarded to the also well-known psychologist Carl Stumpf. Afterwards he would accept a position at the University of Breslau, where he would return to work again exploring memory and learning.
It would also focus heavily on this last aspect, aiming to investigate while making practical use of its research in the educational field. Created the gap test, based on the reading of sentences in which the subject had to fill in the gaps left by the evaluator (first the complete sentences were read and later the same ones but without certain words or groups of words). This test was aimed at evaluating intelligence and memory in children.
Ebbinghaus’ death, and legacy
In 1905, he decided to leave the University of Breslau to move to Halle, the city where he would live his last years. Ebbinghaus He would die in this city on February 26, 1909, as a result of pneumonia
Throughout his life he published various publications of great interest, and his research and methods continue to be used (although modified) today for various purposes. He is one of the first psychologists to use scientific methodology to analyze higher cognitive processes, his legacy being extensive despite not having had disciples or having created currents of thought.
Study of memory and other scientific contributions
These studies would begin in 1878, when Hermann Ebbinghaus would begin to carry out various experiments using himself as an experimental subject and applying methodology based on psychophysics. It was common for him to use lists of nonsense words or pseudowords, because they allowed the memorization capacity to be measured more objectively by not being able to use elements such as meaning to support and facilitate memory. He generated the words randomly and later memorized them and tried to reproduce them orally.
Shortly after, in 1880, he would be appointed assistant professor (something like associate professor) at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University of Berlin. The results of the different experiments on memory and the subsequent analysis of it would lead him to develop concepts as important and influential as the forgetting curve and that of learning or the role of reviewing the material to be learned when maintaining content in memory.
