Édouard Claparède facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Édouard Claparède
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| Born | 24 March 1873 |
| Died | 29 September 1940 (aged 67) Geneva
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| Nationality | Swiss |
| Alma mater | University of Geneva |
| Known for | Genevan School |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neurology |
| Institutions | Rousseau Institute, International Bureau of Education |
Édouard Claparède (born March 24, 1873 – died September 29, 1940) was a smart Swiss scientist. He was a neurologist (a doctor who studies the brain and nerves), a child psychologist (someone who studies how children think and behave), and an educator. He helped us understand a lot about how people learn and remember things.
Contents
A Life of Learning and Discovery
Édouard Claparède studied science and medicine. He became a doctor in 1897 from the University of Geneva. He also worked at a hospital in Paris for a short time.
In 1901, he started a science magazine called Archives de psychologie with his cousin, Théodore Flournoy. Claparède worked on this magazine until he passed away. From 1904, he worked at the University of Geneva. There, he became the head of the experimental psychology lab. This lab was a place where scientists did tests to learn about how the mind works.
Claparède held many important roles. In 1912, he started the Rousseau Institute. This institute was a special school focused on child development and education. He also helped create the International Bureau of Education (IBE) in 1925. This group worked to improve education around the world. From 1915 to 1940, he was a psychology professor at the University of Geneva. He took over this job from his cousin, Flournoy.
The Pin Prick Experiment
Claparède did a famous experiment that showed how our brains can remember painful events, even if we forget other things. He worked with a woman who had a type of amnesia. This meant she could not remember recent events. She remembered her past life and could think clearly, but she forgot new things very quickly.
Every day, Claparède would greet her, but she would never remember his face. One day, during their meeting, Claparède hid a small pin in his hand. When he went to shake her hand, the pin pricked her.
The next day, as expected, she did not remember Claparède. But when he reached out to shake her hand, she hesitated. She pulled her hand back a little. Even though she didn't remember why, her brain seemed to remember the danger. This showed that even with severe memory loss, a part of her brain still recognized a threat. It was a fascinating discovery about how memory works.
Understanding the Mind
Claparède was interested in psychoanalysis, which is a way of understanding how our minds work, especially the parts we are not aware of. He joined a group of scientists who studied the ideas of Sigmund Freud. However, Claparède did not like it when people were too strict about Freud's ideas.
In 1909, he worked with another scientist, Pierre Janet. They talked about the difference between a medical idea of the subconscious mind and Freud's more philosophical idea of the unconscious mind. Claparède still found psychoanalysis interesting. In 1926, he wrote an introduction for the first French translation of one of Freud's famous books.
Books by Claparède
Claparède wrote several books about his studies. Some of them include:
- L’association des idées (1903)
- Psychologie de l’enfant et pédagogie expérimentale (1909)
- L’éducation fonctionnelle (1931)
- La genèse de l’hypothèse (1933)
See also
In Spanish: Édouard Claparède para niños
- Cryptamnesia
- Operant conditioning
