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.
From the guide to the Allan Schrier papers, 1961-1989, (Center for the History of Psychology)
