Robert yerkes pronunciation
- Yerkes-dodson law
- Robert Mearns Yerkes was an American psychologist, ethologist, eugenicist and primatologist best known for his work in intelligence testing and in the field of comparative psychology.
- Robert M. Yerkes was an American psychologist and a principal developer of comparative (animal) psychology in the United States.
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Browse History
Robert Yerkes was instrumental in creating the intelligence testing movement in the US. He, along with others, instituted the Army Alpha and Beta testing program to measure the intelligence of men in the first world war. This work was seen as a pivotal moment in the history of psychology. First, it provided psychometricians with the first group intelligence tests. Second, it popularized popularized intelligence testing in the public and private sectors. Third, the program provided vast amounts of data to serve as fuel for future controversies over apparent racial differences in intelligence test scores and the supposed decline of America's "national intelligence."
Immediately after the United States entered the First World War, Yerkes urged the American Psychological Association to contribute psychological expertise to the war effort. The APA responded by deploying twelve committees. Yerkes chaired both the National Research Council Psychology Committee and the Committee on the Psychological Examination of Recruits. This second committee was charged wit
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Yerkes, Robert Mearns
1876–1956
AMERICAN COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGIST, RESEARCHER
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Ph.D., 1902
BRIEF OVERVIEW
Robert Mearns Yerkes was a leading figure in comparative psychology, a branch of psychology that studies animal behavior and often makes comparisons from species to species. The ultimate goal is to find general principles that may sometimes shed light on human behavior. Yerkes published several books on the subject. Among them was The Great Apes: A Study of Anthropoid Life, an influential book he coauthored with his wife, Ada Watterson Yerkes. He also started the first U.S. scientific journal devoted solely to the study of animal behavior. In 1929, Yerkes founded the Yale Laboratories of Primate Biology, the first laboratory for nonhuman primate research in the United States. The laboratory was later renamed the Yerkes National Primate Research Center.
Early in his career as an animal researcher, Yerkes also worked with John Dodson to develop the Yerkes-Dodson law. This law originally related the strength of a stimulus to the speed of avoidanc
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Robert Yerkes
American psychologist (1876–1956)
Robert Mearns Yerkes (; May 26, 1876 – February 3, 1956) was an American psychologist, ethologist, eugenicist and primatologist best known for his work in intelligence testing and in the field of comparative psychology.
Yerkes was a pioneer in the study both of human and primateintelligence and of the social behavior of gorillas and chimpanzees. Along with John D. Dodson, Yerkes developed the Yerkes–Dodson law relating arousal to performance.
As time went on, Yerkes began to propagate his support for eugenics in the 1910s and 1920s. His works are largely considered biased toward outmoded racialist theories by modern academics.[1][2]
He also served on the board of trustees of Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1921 to 1925. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1915,[3] the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1923,[4] and the American Philosophical Society in 1936.[5]
Education and early career
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