Harry Harlow

Lore & Background

After a year at Reed College, he obtained admission to Stanford University through a special aptitude test. He became a graduate student in psychology, working under Calvin Perry Stone, Walter Richard Miles, and Lewis Terman. He accepted a professorship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he acquired a vacant building that became the Primate Laboratory. That same year he married child psychologist Margaret Kuenne, with whom he had two children. Harlow was treated with electro-convulsive therapy for depression following her death. He was buried alongside Margaret Kuenne in Madison, Wisconsin. Harlow's early research involved developing the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus to study learning, cognition, and memory in primates. He later created inanimate wire and cloth surrogate mothers, finding that infant monkeys overwhelmingly chose the cloth mother, with or without food, only visiting the wire mother with food when needing sustenance.

Reader's Guide

Harlow's experiments on rhesus monkeys were ethically controversial and significantly influenced the understanding of attachment and social development. His surrogate mother studies demonstrated that contact comfort was more important than feeding in forming the mother–infant bond, challenging behaviorist views that emphasized feeding. Later isolation experiments, in which infant monkeys were kept in isolation chambers for up to 12 months, produced intensely disturbed animals. Some researchers cite these experiments as a factor in the rise of the animal liberation movement in the United States. His work provided empirical support for John Bowlby's theories on maternal care and influenced debates on child rearing and institutional care. Harlow received numerous honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Medal of Science, and the presidency of the American Psychological Association.

Did You Know?

• Harlow changed his surname from Israel to Harlow at the prompting of Lewis Terman, due to fear of negative consequences of a seemingly Jewish last name, though his family was not Jewish.
• Harlow was treated with electro-convulsive therapy for depression after the death of his second wife, Margaret Kuenne.
• Harlow's surrogate mother experiments showed that infant monkeys overwhelmingly chose a cloth-covered mother over a wire mother, even when the wire mother held food.