Hermann Ebbinghaus

Psychology Germany 1850 – 1909 102 quotes

German psychologist who pioneered the study of memory through nonsense syllables, noting 'Psychology has a long past, yet its real history is short.'

Most quoted

"Out of the simple consonants and vowels several hundred syllables can be formed, many of which are very little inferior in intelligibility to words of the language."

— from Book, 1885

"The most striking result of these experiments is the regular decrease of the amount of material retained with the increase of the time elapsed since the learning."

— from Über das Gedächtnis (On Memory), 1885

"The relations of association by which one idea is converted into another are three in number: similarity, contiguity, and contrast."

— from Book, 1885