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Harry Harlow's Three Monkeys

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Harry Harlow was a primate researcher and experimental psychologist. In the primate lab that he created with his Ph.D. students, Harlow began studying a group of three organ grinder’s monkeys. In those times, monkeys were expensive to maintain and to bring to the lab. The three monkeys formed Maslow’s dominance hierarchies: Capuchin was the first monkey, Cinnamon was the second monkey, and Red was the third monkey. Because Red was the lower hierarchical monkey, he needed to steal his own food back from capuchin. At one point, cinnamon started to yell for capuchin; at the same time, red obtain a stick. He struck cinnamon and capuchin. Red neither was unaware of what the stick was used for nor did he know how to use it. Harlow was fascinated …show more content…

At the same time, his wife, Clara, was expecting a child. After the birth of his child, Harry used most of his hour cherishing the little baby boy. But that was until Goldstein initiated his lectures. Goldstein mentioned that monkeys were at a lower level of intelligence compared to humans, and that these monkeys would never accomplish abstract reason or anything complicated. According to Goldstein, humans were the only species that could attain analytical intelligence. Harlow disagrees with that statement because of the experience he encountered with Red. Harlow needs to figure out a way for the monkey to acquire more. He created the Wisconsin General test apparatus where they had to complete the challenge to obtain another tray with a treat on it. Unable to afford more monkeys, Harlow began rotating he already had. The monkeys were making fast education decisions; as a result, they appeared as genius. In his second test, he began to test out the relation of the object and not the shape. This requires the new monkeys to analyze the relationship between the objects. The monkeys have also risen to the situation. Thus, the monkeys continued to gain more and more

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