Hermann Ebbinghaus is widely known within the world of psychology. This important psychologist and philosopher was one of the first to employ scientific methodology in the study and analysis of superior cognitive ability. Ebbinghaus made several contributions to the world of psychology, being especially relevant for being a pioneer in the study of memory.

In this article we will see a short biography of Hermann Ebbinghaus .

Short biography of Hermann Ebbinghaus

Hermann Ebbinghaus was born on 24 January 1850 in the Prussian town of Barmen. The son of the wealthy merchant Carl Ebbinghaus and Julie Ebbinghaus, he was educated in a wealthy environment and in the Lutheran faith. What followed was one of the most remarkable research careers in the history of psychology.

First years: military training and service

In 1867 a young Hermann Ebbinghaus began 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 during the Franco-Prussian war , after which he would resume his studies. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1873, having written a thesis based on the philosophy of the unconscious (from Hartmann’s philosophical approach).

After obtaining his doctorate, Ebbinghaus would travel to England and France, where he would continue to train and conduct various experiments while working as a tutor. During this period he would become acquainted with 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 Ebbinghaus’ most important and outstanding contributions in the field of psychology: his studies on memory . In fact, he is considered to be the father of the scientific study of memory.

Marriage, descent and publication of “On Memory”

Personally, in 1884 Ebbinghaus married Adelheid Julia Amalia Görlitz . A year later, their son Julius Ebbinghaus was born, who would eventually become an important New Kantian philosopher. In 1885, Ebbinghaus published one of his most representative works, “Ãœber das Gedächtnis” (“On Memory”), which reflected his studies in this field.

Research on memory, vision and learning

Memory was not the only aspect that Ebbinghaus investigated. In 1890 he began to be interested in and work on the sense of sight, specifically the perception of color. Together with König he founded the publication Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane , which focused on sensory perception from both a psychological and physiological perspective. In this aspect the study of optical illusions is also noteworthy, discovering that the perception of the size of an object varies according to the size of those around it.

Four years later, he was to become head of the philosophy department at the University of Berlin, which was awarded to the also well-known psychologist Carl Stumpf. After that he would accept a position at the University of Breslau, where he would again work on the exploration of memory and learning.

In this last aspect it would also focus to a great extent, seeking to investigate while at the same time generating practical use of its research in the field of education. He 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 then the same ones but without certain words or groups of words). This test was aimed at evaluating intelligence and memory in children.

Death of Ebbinghaus, and legacy

In 1905, he decided to leave Breslau University and move to Halle University, where he would live his last years. Ebbinghaus died in this city on February 26, 1909, as a result of pneumonia .

Throughout his life he produced several publications of great interest, and his research and methods are still used (albeit modified) today for various purposes. He is one of the first psychologists to use scientific methodology to analyze higher cognitive processes, and his legacy is extensive despite not having had disciples or having created currents of thought.

Study of memory and other scientific contributions

These studies would begin from 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 meaningless words or pseudo-words , because they allowed a more objective measurement of the capacity for memorization, since elements such as meaning could not be used to support and facilitate memory. He generated the words randomly and then memorized them and tried to reproduce them orally.

Shortly afterwards, in 1880, he was appointed assistant professor (somewhat as associate professor) at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin. The results of the various experiments on memory and their subsequent analysis would lead him to develop such important and influential concepts as the forgetting curve and that of learning or the role of reviewing the material to be learned in maintaining content in the memory.