Abstract
Delboeuf (1831-1896) is famous in psychology as the author of the optico-geometrical illusion that bears his name and as a worker in the field of hypnotism. However, he also generated original and fascinating ideas in the field of memory. This article reviews Delboeuf’s work on memory. We have showed that the origin of his reflection on memory is relative to the problem of dreams. Analysing Delboeuf’s work shows that he is a pioneer in at least two domains. On the one hand, he was the first psychologist who, as early as 1880 and before Ebbinghaus’ work, clearly established a distinction between today’s so-called “implicit memory” and “explicit memory”. On the other hand, he was the first psychologist, but not the first scholar, to consider memory in a connexions! perspective. Today research is still being carried out in the areas of implicit memory and connexionism and Joseph Delboeuf is definitely an important figure in these fields.