Pavlov Vs Ebbinghaus Analysis

Pavlov vs. Ebbinghaus Hermann Ebbinghaus helped determine part of the rules of association, by determine if the mechanisms of association had validity. Associations are relations between two events, where the manifestation of one event activates the image of the second event. He created nonsense symbols, which was his way of experimenting with how associations are formed. Nonsense symbols are three letter words that have no definition, meaning, or importance, thus allowing people to have no connection with them. Examples of nonsense symbols include maf, pid, and nez. Ebbinghaus used himself as the subject of his experiment reading lists of nonsense symbols for memorization purposes. Specifically he was looking at three things. First, over the time spent memorizing were the associations increased? Second, did the location of the symbols on the list associated with …show more content…
Where Ebbinghaus used nonsense symbols to uncover humans true abilities of association. While Pavlov discovered more accurately how reflexes work and classical condition. When combining both Ebbinghaus and Pavlov’s work we find the results of mind-body dualism. Mind-body dualism is composed of two components, one in which actions are voluntarily controlled by the mind, better known as mentalism. Second where actions are involuntarily controlled by the reflex mechanism, better known as reflexology. Ebbinghaus used mentalism by determining the body’s voluntary abilities to use association to remember nonsense symbols on a list. We know this is voluntary because we have the ability to think through and choose if Ebbinghaus wanted to learn those symbols. Whereas Pavlov used reflexology to show that over time new reflexes can be gained via association. Since we do not actively control or think about our reflexes before they occur, we just instinctively act upon them, this is considered