Home > Encyclopedia of Psychology > Robert Yerkes

1876-1956
American psychologist who made important contributions to the fields of comparative animal psychology, particularly in the areas of animal intelligence and behavior.

Robert Yerkes was born in Pennsylvania, and was educated at Harvard University, where he received his doctorate in psychology in 1902. He served as professor of psychology at Harvard, the University of Minnesota, and Yale University, and as a member of the National Research Council. In 1919, Yerkes founded the Yale Laboratories of Primate Biology and served as its director from 1929 to 1941, when the lab was moved to Orange Park, Florida. A year later, it was renamed the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology. A pioneer in the field of comparative psychology, Yerkes studied the