A Chimp Off the Old Block

Question: Do infants have a connection to their mother because of survival or is there a deeper connection?

Hypothesis: Scientists believed that infants felt an attraction to their mothers for food and shelter, and that the mother showing affection towards her child was merely a sentimental gesture that served no real purpose.

Study Type: The study is a laboratory type study because scientists replicated the monkey’s natural environment in a laboratory to study them.

Ethical Issues: Ethical issues arose from the scientists separating baby monkeys from their mothers, isolating them from contact and occasionally putting them under stress. Further issues surrounded the crippling of the emotional development of the monkeys.

In University of Wisconsin laboratory, Harry Harlow took several infant monkeys of a few weeks old from their mothers and put them in individual cages. On one side of the cage, there was a wire replica of a mother monkey that suspended a milk bottle. On the other side of the cage, there was a softer cloth replica of a mother monkey that did not offer any food. The scientists observed the monkeys in their cages, noting specifically that the monkeys would prefer to stay near the cloth replica, despite the fact that it offered no nourishment. They would use the cloth mother as a “home base”, centering the explorations of their cages around it.

Following that, Harlow put the monkeys in new cages – this time, half of the monkeys only had a cloth mother and half of the monkeys had the wire duplicates. He then subjected the monkeys to stress through loud noises and drastic changes in the lighting. He noted that the monkeys with the cloth mothers would run to them, and lay on them in order to calm themselves from the stress. The monkeys with the wire mothers, however, would simply scream and run around their cages, as if the wire mother offered no comfort.

Authors: Sami Shroyer and Sam Peltier