PS390 Study Guide - Final Guide: Wilhelm Wundt, Interference Theory
Document Summary
Wundt believed memory is an insignificant phenomenon unsuited to experimentation. He opposed compartmentalizing particular psychological functions (memory) that one experiences in their totality (remembering) Ebbinghaus invented nonsense syllables, which he presumed were meaningless, to control precise variations of stimuli and measured the time to recall them. He also studied relearning, practice styles, list length, primacy and recency effects, fatigue effects. Credited w discovering the usefulness of over-learning and the effects of sensible vs non-sensical memory and graphed the first curve of memory-retention. For ebbinghaus, memory consisted of the formation of associations and meant simple retention of objectively performed tasks. He removed meaning from the retention processes of everyday life; memory of language, for instance, is culturally embedded. His research participants apparently privately turned non-sense into meaning by various strategies. Investigators employing his method seem to ignore how people interpret the stimuli and consciously experience remembering, and how investigators" construction of an artificial experimental situation constrains interpretations of memory.
