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Harlow began his career with nonhuman primate research. He developed the Wisconsin General Testing Apparatus (WGTA) to study memory, cognition, and learning. In the studies he did he discovered that the monkeys he worked with were developing strategies for his tests. Later these become known as learning sets, Harlow described as "learning to learn".
His research played an important role in our understanding of child development. Harlow's time suggested that paying attention to young children would "spoil" them and that affection should be limited. Harlow's work instead demonstrated the absolute importance of developing safe, secure, and supportive emotional bonds with caregivers during early childhood.
Harlow was born on October 31, 1905, born and raised in Fairfield, Iowa. He was the second youngest of four brothers. Harlow went to Stanford in 1924 where he started out as an English major. His grades were so bad that after one semester he switched to the study of psychology. While at Stanford, Harlow studied with psychologist Lewis Terman, also his doctoral advisor. In 1930, he earned his Ph.D. in Psychology and later changed his last name from Israel to Harlow.
Harlow's research contributions are in the areas of learning, motivation, and affection, they have major relevance for general and child psychology. Notable awards: National Medal of Science (1967), Gold Medal from American Psychological Foundation (1973), and Howard Crosby Warren Medal (1956)
Harlow was very educated in the field of Ethology, which is the study of primates. His research focused on the learning abilities in primates and he observed the phenomenon of ‘learning to learn.’
He separated infant monkeys from their mothers a few hours after birth to be “raised” by two kinds of surrogate monkey mother machines, both dispense milk. One mother was made out of bare wire mesh and the other was wire covered with soft terry cloth. The monkeys who had a choice of mothers spent more time clinging to the terry cloth one, even when their physical nourishment came from bottles mounted on the bare wire mothers. This showed that infant love was not a simple response to the satisfaction of physiological needs. Attachment was not primarily about hunger or thirst.
He died December 6, 1981 at age 76 in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.