He stayed at Breslau for eleven years and then accepted an appointment at the University of Halle. Over the years he became a prominent and respected member of the new scientific discipline of experimental psychology. A major source of his renown lay in his textbook of general psychology,
Grundzüge der Psychologie (1897), which became the most widely read psychology text in Germany. Ebbinghaus died of pneumonia at Halle on February 26, 1909.
Ebbinghaus's Approach to Memory
Before Ebbinghaus, the study of memory consisted of philosophical armchair speculation concerning remembering and forgetting in everyday life, and clinical observations of patients with memory disorders. The philosophical approach of the day is reflected in William James's Principles of Psychology (1890);. the clinical approach is illustrated by the work of Théodule Ribot. Both lines of thought produced many insights into the nature and workings of normal and impaired memory. However, there were also curious gaps; not surprisingly, the contemporary thinkers were unaware of many of them. One widely held view, for instance, maintained that memory could not be studied by strict scientific methods. Although methods of science had been applied to the "lower" mental processes, such as sensation and perception, under the general rubric of psychophysics, the "higher" mental processes such as memory were regarded as being beyond the pale of such methods.
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