Ebbinghaus, Hermann (1850-1909)

Ebbinghaus, Hermann (1850-1909)

Hermann Ebbinghaus was the founder of the experimental psychology of memory. He laid the foundation for the scientific study of memory in a monograph titled Über das Gedächtnis (1885), translated into English in 1913 under the title Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology.

Life

Ebbinghaus was born on January 23, 1850, at Barmen, near Bonn, Germany. His father was a well-to-do merchant. He studied languages and philosophy at the University of Bonn. He served in the army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and upon returning to the university completed his doctoral dissertation in 1873. He then spent some five years traveling in France and England. He began his research on memory at Berlin in 1878, spending more than a year on the initial set of experiments. Upon completing these studies he became a private lecturer at the University of Berlin in 1880, and he continued his studies of memory. He repeated many of the original experiments from 1879-1880 in 1883-1884 and added new ones. He published the report on both series in his 1885 monograph.

Ebbinghaus's life after he published his epochmaking study was active and productive. He was appointed a professor at the University of Berlin in 1886, remaining there until 1894, when he moved to the University of Breslau.

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