Wilhelm Wundt Research Paper

Wilhelm Wundt worked as a professor at the university of Leipzig an is famous for opening a the first psychological laboratory. He believed the goal of psychology was to discover the content of conscious of experiences and the interpretation of the experiences. He focused more on the process and the experimental aspects. He taught until he was 85 years old, as a result his students continued his research. One of his students was Hermann Ebbinghaus and he focused on memory. Ebbinghaus performed thousands of tests on himself by memorizing syllables. He created three syllable words, memorized long lists and recorded how much he remembered after different lengths of time. Wundt believed that language, learning and memory interfere with the ability to study higher mental processes. Personal self observations are bias. Ebbinghaus used Wundt 's work on sensations and the speed of the mental processb as a reference. He discovered the famous forgetting curve that is still used today.

Brentano was famous for studying a version of psychology called act psychology. Brentano opposed Wundt 's ideas of breaking down thing into components. Brentano took a more holistic approach that focused on the act of seeing not what was seen. Act psychology looked the intent to do things and the purpose of consciousness. He believe in studying the actions of consciousness. Brentano opposed Wundt 's introspection as a research method. He said it was impossible for observers to report with accuracy there own state of consciousness. This created an experimental dilemma on how do to study the act of