Hermann Ebbinghaus started the scientific study of memory by publishing a book entitled Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology in 1885 ("Ebbinghaus | in Chapter 06: Memory | from Psychology: An Introduction by Russ Dewey", 2016). Ebbinghaus purposed an experiment where he decided to use himself as a subject where the experiment is closely related to short term memory recall. He presented himself with items to memorize, waited for a precise amount of time, and then tested himself to see how much he can remember and this basic procedure is still used in most research in memory. Hermann Ebbinghaus experiment uses non-sense syllables; letter combinations such as RPT and GDW that are totally meaningless. There are some reasons that Hermann Ebbinghaus rejected the ideas of using ordinary writing or poetry because in his opinion people would have too many associations to the materials that would contribute to the destruction towards their memory recall. The nonsense syllables are used because they are like stimuli that nobody has seen before. In other words, Hermann Ebbinghaus used the nonsense syllables to study the human memory towards something they saw for the first time. The nonsense syllables purposed by Hermann Ebbinghaus are non-word letter combinations that composed of three consonants in CCC trigram or one with a consonant, vowel, and consonant in CVC trigram. In addition, a two-letter nonsense syllable is a bigram and a four-letter syllable is a quadragram. In the memory recall test that I have been doing uses CCC trigrams where the list of ten nonsense syllables are being listed by a partner with eight opportunities given to get the correct answer. …show more content…
In the real test, the subject actually can recall the syllables given without limited opportunity until in the end they get all the correct answer. I have to do it in only eight times because the duration of time provided in class is very limited. Basic procedures of Hermann Ebbinghaus experiment are uses in this activity. The students were told to sit in partner who, one will be the criminologist and the other one will be the victim. The role of criminologist is to prepare a set of ten nonsense syllables in a vertical row with standard handwriting. As for the victim, they need to recall and jot the syllables that had been show to them. For the criminologist, they need to prepare the nonsense three-letter consonants that must satisfy certain rules. They cannot write the same consonant letter in the same syllable of three consonant. Besides, if they want to use the same consonant letter, they must put it in the syllables that are at least 3 intervals from the other syllable that contain the exact consonant. Apart from that, the vowels are excluded and cannot be used in the test of CCC trigrams. The students that take the role of criminologist must make sure that the lists of syllables made are not exposed to the students that hold the role as the victim before the test started. The list of syllables are said to be confidential and only can be seen for certain duration of time as the test started. As for the victim role, there are also certain rules that must be followed. A victim must sit properly without anything in their hand. The answer paper must be divided into eight sections. The answer paper and also the pen must be put aside. When the victim is given the paper that contains the syllables made by the criminologist, he must read it quietly without making any movement or body language that is not necessary. The victim can take a look at the syllables paper in a given time and usually the duration of time is limited to thirty second only. After the time given is ended, the victim are given one minute time to recall and jot down as many syllables as they can remember from what is shown to them a while ago. Another rule is, to ensure the answers given is correct, apart from answering all the correct syllables exactly as shown in the criminologist paper, the victim also have to make sure the arrangement of the ten syllables must be correct too, from top to bottom. The criminologist is