The Memory Experiments

What do you think when you hear the word memory? As Steemit is largely inhabited by computer freaks, I assume several of you associate it with computers first, with humans second. In this case, I’m talking about human memory, the topic of the lectures I’m currently attending.

As an introduction, I want to present you the first experiments connected to this, because we didn’t always know what we think is common knowledge today.

Remember, remember …
Herman Ebbinghaus, born in 1850, was told that human memory couldn’t be studied through experiments. That there was just no way that the results would have any significance.

Ebbinghaus said fuck you (showing Wilhelm Wundt, the guy who said that, the mental middle finger) and did it anyway, being experimenter and test subject at once. He made a list with meaningless syllables (bok, lef, taz, and so on) and tried to remember them. 2,300 of them, to be exact. This was repeated several times, with up to 744 hours between attempts. Each time, the time he needed to remember the list perfectly was recorded. @kayes12345
And what did he find out?

The time needed to learn the syllables reduced dramatically between the first few attempts to memorize it, which then reduced in a curve. At one point, repeating the information didn’t result in a decline in the time needed.

And just like this, he had experimentally studied something about human memory!

Take that, Wundt!

Trial and Error
How does learning work? How does our brain connect something we do with something that happens?

That was the question Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949) asked. And what does a scientist do when they have a question?

They put a poor animal in a box and see what happens.