n
n
n
n
nDon’tnforget this man’s name!
n
n
n
n
n
nHermannnEbbinghaus was a pioneer. Not someone who strode out into thenwilderness and built a log house, but a pioneer in the study ofnmemory. Ebbinghaus was very curious about the fact that even goodnstudents forget 90% of what they learn in a classroom within 30 days,nand he tried to figure out what he could about when and why wenremember—and forget!
n
n
n
n
n
nEbbinghausnworked with the memorization of “nonsense syllables,” 3-letternsyllables that didn’t mean anything, such as YAT and KOJ. One thingnthat made his research less useful to later researchers is that henused only himself as test subject; it would be much better to usenmany different people so that the findings could be generalized tonlarger populations, and also it compromises research, to some extent,nto have the same person acting as both researcher and subject!
n
n
n
n
n
nStill,nEbbinghaus was able to describe findings that have stood up to laterntesting, such as the sharp (exponential) “forgetting curve” andn“learning curve,” and the fact that we tend to remember the lastnand first items in a list longer than the middle items. He alsonstudied “savings,” our ability to relearn things we had oncenlearned and then forgotten.
n
n
n
n
n
nTrainnyour memory at Kids Memory Dot Com!
n
n
n
n
n
Ebbinghaus also invented this illusion, which is called the Ebbinghaus illusion! |
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
nAlsonon this date:
n
n
n
n
n
n
nBallerina Maria Tallchief’s birthday
n
n
n
n
n
n
nAnniversary of gold discovery in California