What was the primary focus of Ebbinghaus' CVC trigram experiment?

Ebbinghaus' CVC trigram experiment primarily focused on exploring the relationship between time and forgetting. He conducted his research using consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) trigrams, which are nonsensical syllables that do not have inherent meaning. This choice allowed him to study memory processes in a controlled way, isolating variables that might interfere with recall.

Through his experiments, Ebbinghaus was notably interested in how quickly information was forgotten over time. He meticulously measured the amount of time it took to learn these trigrams and how the retention of that information decreased as time passed after learning. His findings led to the formulation of the forgetting curve, which illustrates how information is lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it.

This focus was groundbreaking in psychology, emphasizing the dynamics of memory and the temporal aspects of learning, rather than simply the act of memorization or the influence of related concepts such as overlearning or relearning.