Finding aid for the Allan Schrier papers

Biography of Allan Schrier

Allan Schrier was born January 15, 1930 in New York City. He would go on to become one of the leading primatological psychologists in the world. Schrier completed an undergraduate honors degree at New York University in 1951. Thereafter, he attended the University of Wisconsin under Harry Harlow. This mentorship brought along an interest in primate behavioral research.

Upon completing his PhD. in 1956, Schrier spent two years with Roger Sperry in a two year postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. This research involved split-brain and visual cortex experiments in cats. The end of the fellowship in 1958 brought Schrier to Brown University. He returned to primate research, establishing a federally funded primate laboratory at the university. Schrier's work focused on discrimination learning in primates and Harlow's idea of learning set formation. To perform this research, Schrier created an objective measure for recording eye movement of monkeys.

Schrier was a co-editor for the series Behavior of Nonhuman Primates (1965-74) and in 1962 founded the Laboratory Primate Newsletter and continued it until his death. Schrier passed away on March 27, 1987.

Scope and Content

Schrier's work in primate research is well represented in this collection of manuscript materials. This collection includes a large portion of volumes of the Laboratory Primate Newsletter, of which Schrier was the founder. Various grant applications for primate experiments such as "Eye Movement of Monkeys During Performance of Visual Tasks" and "Discrimination Learning by Primates" are also present in this collection.

There is correspondence regarding several organizations including the International Primatological Society, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the International Union of Biological Sciences. Correspondence regarding the Laboratory Primate Newsletter accompanies the newsletters. Some correspondence with Harry Harlow and Schrier's Master's thesis round out the collection.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

Some restrictions apply; see CHP staff for details.

The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.

Restrictions on Access

Some restrictions apply; see CHP staff for details.

A small laboratory film clip from 1949 has been digitized and is available in CCHP's Moving Images Collection.

Subject Headings

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

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Preferred Citation

Cite as: [identification of item], [folder number, box number], Archives of the History of American Psychology, The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology - The University of Akron