116 years ago today, February 26, 1909 (February 7, 1909 in the lunar calendar), German psychologist Ebbinghaus passed away. Hermann Ebbinghaus (January 24, 1850-February 26, 1909) was a German psychologist. Born on January 24, 1850 in Bamen, near Bonn, Germany, and died on February 26, 1909 in Halle. At the age of 17, he entered the University of Bonn to study history and philosophy, and later entered the University of Halle and the University of Berlin for further study. He received a doctorate in philosophy in 1873. Served in the army during the Franco-Prussian War. After the war, he devoted himself to research in Berlin, Britain, and France, and his interest turned to science. In 1876, Ebbinghaus bought an old copy of Fechner's Outline of Psychophysics at a bookstall in Paris. This accident had a profound impact on him and soon influenced the new psychological science. Fechner's mathematical method of studying psychological phenomena enlightened the young Ebbinghaus, who determined to study memory through strict systematic measurements, as Fechner had done in psychophysics. Prior to this, W. Wundt had announced that advanced psychological processes such as learning and memory could not be studied experimentally. In addition, at that time, Ebbinghaus had no university teaching positions, no teachers, and no specialized equipment or laboratory to conduct research. But even so, he spent five years, using himself as a subject, conducting experiments alone, and completing a series of controlled studies. In 1886, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Berlin. In 1890 Ebbinghaus co-founded the Journal of Psychology and Sensory Physiology. In 1894, he was appointed professor at the University of Brausley. In 1905, he was appointed professor at Harley University. Ebbinghaus's research methods are objective, experimental, and quantifiable through careful observation and recording. His program bases data on time-tested research of association and learning. He reasoned that the difficulty of learning the material could be measured by the number of repetitions required to learn the material, and the calculated number of repetitions could also be used as a criterion for complete reproduction. In order to make the experiment orderly, he even adjusted his personal habits, tried to keep his personal habits normal, worked according to the same strict daily practices, and always learned materials at the same time every day. Ebbinghaus invented meaningless syllables for memory materials. He found that it was difficult to use prose or poetry as memory materials because each person's cultural background, knowledge and experience were different, and people who understood language could easily associate meaning or associations with words. These associations that had been formed could help the learning of materials, so that it could not be controlled in terms of meaning. To this end, Ebbinghaus looked for materials that did not form associations, were completely similar, and were equally unfamiliar to the subjects. Using these materials to conduct experiments, it was impossible to have any past associations. This material is meaningless syllables. A meaningless syllable is composed of two consonants sandwiched by a vowel, such as lef, bok or gat. He wrote all possible combinations of consonants and vowels on different cards, which gave him 2300 syllables, from which he randomly extracted those to learn. Ebbinghaus's research in the field of memory psychology mainly involves the following aspects: (1) Identifying the difference between the speed of remembering meaningless syllables and the speed of remembering meaningful material. To determine this difference, he memorized passages from Byron's poem Don Juan, each of which contained 80 syllables. He found that it took about nine readings to memorize a paragraph. He then memorized 80 meaningless syllables and found that completing the task required almost 80 iterations. So he concluded that learning meaningless materials was almost nine times more difficult than learning meaningful materials. (2)The effect of the length and quantity of material on the number of repetitions necessary for complete reproduction. He found that longer materials require more repetitions, which means more learning time. The number of syllables learned has increased significantly, resulting in a significant increase in the average time taken to learn each syllable. The conclusion is that the more material we learn, the longer it will take. (3)The time course between learning and recalling. Materials are forgotten fastest in the first few hours of learning. As time goes on, materials are forgotten less and less, which is the famous Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. In addition to these main aspects, Ebbinghaus has also studied other variables that can affect learning and retention, such as the impact of overlearning, the impact of repeated learning or review, the impact of near and distance associations within the syllabus, and so on. In 1880, Ebbinghaus was hired at the University of Berlin, where he continued to study memory and repeated and verified his earlier research. In 1885, he published the book "On Memory", which was one of the most outstanding research results in the history of experimental psychology and created a new field of research. Psychology historian E.G. Pauline commented: "This is epoch-making, not only because of the scope and novelty of the article, but also because it is immediately seen as experimental psychology breaking through obstacles to the study of advanced psychological processes. Ebbinghaus pioneered a new field..."After 1885, Ebbinghaus did not continue to study memory and published quite few books. In 1886 he was promoted to associate professor at the University of Berlin. In 1890, he founded a laboratory and founded the journal Psychology and Physiology of Sensory Organs. However, due to Ebbinghaus's lack of writing, he was never promoted at the University of Berlin. In 1894, he was recruited for a lower-level position at the University of Breslau, where he remained until 1905. During this period, he developed the sentence filling test, the first successful test to study advanced psychological processes, a variant of which is used in many common intelligence tests today. In 1902, Ebbinghaus published the extremely successful textbook "Principles of Psychology", and in 1908 he published the more popular textbook "Introduction to Psychology". Both books were reprinted several times, and were revised several times after Ebbinghaus's death. In 1905, Ebbinghaus left Breslau University to go to Harley University. Four years later, he suddenly died of pneumonia at the age of 59. Although Ebbinghaus did not establish a school or form a formal theoretical system. However, his important position in the history of psychology can be seen in a comment by psychology historian D. Schultz: "One measure of the total historical value of a scientist is whether his views and research results can withstand the test of time. According to such standards, Ebbinghaus can be considered more important than Wundt. His research brings objectivity, quantification and experimental methods to the study of association or learning. It was precisely because of Ebbinghaus's research that the concept of association was changed from just speculating on its characteristics to experimental research on it with the help of scientific methods. In addition, many of his discoveries about learning and memory are still reliable today a hundred years later. There are very few psychologists in the history of psychology who can get this kind of evaluation."