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Studies and Experiments

Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Developmental Psychology

From the 1950s, Harry Harlow separated infant rhesus monkeys from their biological mothers and raised them with two inanimate surrogate mothers, one bare wire and one wire covered in soft cloth, varying which surrogate dispensed milk. The monkeys clung to the cloth mother for comfort regardless of which one fed them. A later, more severe strand of the work isolated infant monkeys completely, including in an inverted-pyramid isolation device, producing lasting behavioral anomalies.

Facts
Key Finding
Infant rhesus monkeys strongly preferred a soft cloth-covered surrogate mother over a wire surrogate even when only the wire surrogate provided food, showing that contact comfort, not feeding, was the primary driver of attachment. 1
Study Year
1958 1
Method
Study Design
Randomized Controlled Trial 1
Participants
Animal Subjects 1
Connections

Associated With

Attachment Theory, Theories and Concepts

Harlow's rhesus monkey experiments supplied the empirical support Bowlby's attachment theory had lacked.

Source Wikipedia: Harry Harlow

Conducted By

Harry Harlow, Psychologists
Source Wikipedia: Harry Harlow

In Branch

Comparative Psychology, Branches of Psychology
Source Wikipedia: Harry Harlow
Developmental Psychology, Branches of Psychology
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Harry Harlow
Wikimedia Foundation
  • body text
    Harlow first reported the results of these experiments in The Nature of Love...August 31, 1958
  • Maternal deprivation experiments
    Overwhelmingly, the infant macaques preferred spending their time clinging to the cloth mother.
  • lead section, study-design
    Harlow then investigated whether the infants had a preference for bare-wire mothers or cloth-covered mothers in different situations: with the wire mother holding a bottle with food, and the cloth mother holding nothing, or with the wire mother holding nothing, while the cloth mother held a bottle with food.
  • Conducted By: Harry Harlow, lead
    best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys
  • In Branch: Comparative Psychology, Lead section (rhesus monkey experiments)
    best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys
  • Associated With: Attachment Theory, Article body, section on the reception and impact of the rhesus monkey research
    It was this research that gave strong, empirical support to Bowlby's assertions on the importance of love and mother-child interaction.
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