Ebbinghaus, Hermann

Über das Gedächtnis: Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psychologie [1885; the first book on learning theory]

Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1885. First printing. Hardcover. 8vo, slightly later buckram backed marbled boards, very good. x, 167 (1) pp. Faint blindstamps on title page and one other page of Harvard Library; we are assuming legitimate deaccession. Bookplate of Theodor Flatau (1860-1937), a German-Jewish physician who specialized in voice and ear issues, later taught singing, and added philosophy and psychology to his specialties in the 1890s. Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve. According to John Gach's 1996 Catalog 156 (II): "The first book in learning theory, a foundational text for experimental psychology, and one of the great rarities among important psychology books." (Gach priced it -- apparently this very copy -- $1650). According to Boring's History of Experimental Psychology, the book "was a model of clarity, precision and interesting exposition in scientific writing. It was epoch-making, not merely because of its scope and style, although these features must have helped, but because it was seen at once to be a breach by experimental psychology in the barrier about the higher mental processes." (2nd ed., 388). An English translation was published in 1913 at Columbia as "Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology." Very Good. Item #H15852

Price: $600.00