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Hermann Ebbinghaus

Hermann Ebbinghaus Quotes

Psychologist

Hermann Ebbinghaus (January 24, 1850 - February 26, 1909) was a German psychologist, known as one of the pioneers of experimental psychology. He is renowned for his research on memory, particularly his studies on the memorization of meaningless syllables.

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All Consciousness Has Beens Conditions Greater Heart Ideas Repetition Series Syllables Events

Famous Hermann Ebbinghaus Quotes

“Humans more easily remember or learn items when they are studied a few times over a long period of time (spaced presentation), rather than studied repeatedly in a short period of time.”

Humans Long Remember Technology Learning Teaching Periods Items Presentation Long Periods Of Time

Author:Hermann Ebbinghaus

“Mental events, it is said, are not passive happenings but the acts of a subject.”

Said Subjects Events Happenings Mental Health Passive

Book:Memory

Source: Memory

“Psychology has a long past, but only a short history.”

Long Past Psychology

Author:Hermann Ebbinghaus

“Meanwhile the fact that the connection with the activity of memory in ordinary life is for the moment lost is of less importance than the reverse, namely, that this connection with the complications and fluctuations of life is necessarily still a too close one.”

Stills Moments Facts Life Is Lost Memories Activity Ordinary Connections Importance Reverse Ordinary Life Complication Fluctuation

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“A poem is learned by heart and then not again repeated. We will suppose that after a half year it has been forgotten: no effort of recollection is able to call it back again into consciousness.”

Years Heart Has Beens Able Effort Half Consciousness Forgotten Recollection Back Again

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“Sensorial perception, for example, certainly occurs with greater or less accuracy according to the degree of interest; it is constantly given other directions by the change of external stimuli and by ideas.”

Ideas Given Interest Greater Example Degrees Perception Stimulus Accuracy

Author:Hermann Ebbinghaus

“The constant flux and caprice of mental events do not admit of the establishment of stable experimental conditions.”

Conditions Events Constant Establishment Stable Flux Caprice

Book:Memory

Source: Memory

“Mental states of every kind, - sensations, feelings, ideas, - which were at one time present in consciousness and then have disappeared from it, have not with their disappearance absolutely ceased to exist.”

Kind Ideas States Philosophy Feelings Body Consciousness Medicine Senses Sensations One Time Disappearance Soma

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“No matter how thoroughly a person may have learned the Greek alphabet, he will never be in a condition to repeat it backwards without further training.”

May Persons Matter Conditions Training Greek Repeats Backwards Alphabet

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“One needs but to say that, in the case of an unfamiliar sequence of syllables, only about seven can be grasped in one act, but that with frequent repetition and gradually increasing familiarity with the series this capacity of consciousness may be increased”

Needs May Consciousness Cases Capacity Series Seven Repetition Sequence Familiarity Unfamiliar Syllables

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“Ideas which have been developed simultaneously or in immediate succession in the same mind mutually reproduce each other, and do this with greater ease in the direction of the original succession and with a certainty proportional to the frequency with which they were together”

Mind Has Beens Ideas Together Greater Originals Certainty Ease Frequency Succession

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“What is true [in psychology] is alas not new, the new not true.”

Psychology Alas

Author:Hermann Ebbinghaus

“Often, even after years, mental states once present in consciousness return to it with apparent spontaneity and without any act of the will; that is, they are reproduced involuntarily.”

Years States Consciousness Return Spontaneity

Book:Memory

Source: Memory

“Series of syllables which have been learned by heart, forgotten, and learned anew must be similar as to their inner conditions at the times when they can be recited.”

Heart Has Beens Talking Conditions Series Forgotten Syllables

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“The school-boy doesnt force himself to learn his vocabularies and rules altogether at night, but knows that be must impress them again in the morning.”

Knows School Night Force Boys Morning Impress Vocabulary

Book:Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

Source: Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology

“On the basis of the familiar experience that that which is learned with difficulty is better retained, it would have been safe to prophesy such an effect from the greater number of repetitions.”

Has Beens Numbers Greater Effects Safe Bases Difficulty Familiar Repetition

Book:Memory

Source: Memory

“The amount of detailed information which an individual has at his command and his theoretical elaborations of the same are mutually dependent; they grow in and through each other.”

Individual Grows Information Amount Command Dependent Theoretical

Book:Memory

Source: Memory

“The musician writes for the orchestra what his inner voice sings to him; the painter rarely relies without disadvantage solely upon the images which his inner eye presents to him; nature gives him his forms, study governs his combinations of them.”

Giving Writing Eye Form Voice Study Musician Painter Combination Rely Orchestra Inner Voice Disadvantages

Book:Memory

Source: Memory

“The relation of repetitions for learning and for repeating English stanzas needs no amplification. These were learned by heart on the first day with less than half of the repetitions necessary for the shortest of the syllable series.”

Needs Firsts Heart Half Relation Series Repetition Syllables Amplification

Book:Memory

Source: Memory

About the Author

Born: January 24, 1850
Died: February 26, 1909
Known for: Psychologist
Quotes: 19

Related Topics

Consciousness Has Beens Conditions Greater Heart Ideas Repetition Series Syllables Events

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Memory: A Contribution to Experimental PsychologyRelated source material

MemoryRelated source material

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