Karen Pryor
Karen Pryor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Karen Liane Wylie (1932-05-14)May 14, 1932New York City, U.S. |
| Died | January 4, 2025(2025-01-04) (aged 92) |
| Occupation | Author |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent | Philip Wylie (father) |
| Relatives | Charles Lindbergh (father-in-law) Anne Morrow Lindbergh (mother-in-law) |
Karen Liane Pryor (néeWylie; May 14, 1932 – January 4, 2025) was an American author who specialized in behavioral psychology and marine mammal biology. She was the founder and proponent of clicker training.[1] She was formerly a Marine Mammal Commissioner to the U.S. government.[2][3]
Life and career
Pryor was the daughter of author Philip Wylie and antiques dealer Sally Ondeck Wylie.[4]
Her uncle was Max Wylie, co-creator of The Flying Nun. Her cousin, Janice Wylie, was murdered in 1963 along with her roommate Emily Hoffert in what became known as the Career Girls Murders.
She was first married to Tap Pryor from 1954 until their divorce in 1975.[5] They had three children: Ted, Michael and Gale. Her second marriage was to Jon Lindbergh,[6] son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh; they divorced in 1997.
In 2007 she created the Karen Pryor Academy which offers certification programs for animal trainers. [7]
Pryor died at a care facility in Santa Clarita, California on January 4, 2025, at the age of 92 from complications of dementia.[4][8]
Publications
Books and Articles:
- On My Mind: Reflections on Animal Behavior and Learning – 2014
- Reaching The Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals – 2009
- Click to Win: Clicker Training for the Show Ring – 2002
- Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles –ed. with Kenneth Norris; University of California Press, 1998
- Don’t Shoot The Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training – 1984, 1999, 2002, 2006
- A Dog & a Dolphin 2.0: An Introduction To Clicker Training – 1996
- Getting Started: Clicker Training for Cats – 1999, 2002, 2004
- Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs – 1999, 2002, 2005
- Lads Before the Wind – 1975, 1994, 2000 (Harper & Row 1975)
- Nursing Your Baby – 1963, 1973, 1991, 2005 (HarperCollins Publishers 1963)
- On Behavior: Essays and Research – 1994
- Crunch and Des: Classic Stories of Saltwater Fishing – 2002
- How To Teach Your Dog To Play Frisbee – 1985
- Pryor, K. (2014). A dolphin journey. Aquatic Mammals 40th Anniversary: Special Issue, 104–115.
- Pryor, K. & Chase, S. (2014). Training for variable and innovative behavior. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 27, 218–225
- Pryor, K. & Ramirez, K. (2014) Modern Animal Training. In The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Operant and Classical Conditioning. McSweeney, F.K and Murphy, E. S. (Eds.).
- Pryor, K.W (2001). Cultural transmission of behavior in animals: How a modern training technology uses spontaneous social imitation in cetaceans and Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 352–352
- Pryor, K. & Shallenberger, I. (1991). School structure in spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) in the tuna purse seine fishery in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. In Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles. Pryor, K. & Norris, K.S. (Eds.). Berkeley: University of California Press
- Pryor, K. (1981). Why Porpoise Trainers Are Not Dolphin Lovers: Real and False Communication in the Operant Setting. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 364, 1, 137
- Norris, K.S., Pryor, K. (1970). A Tagging Method for Small Cetaceans. Journal of Mammalogy, 51, 3, 609–610
- Pryor, K.W., Haang, R., & O’Reilly, J. (1969). The creative porpoise: Training for novel behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 653–661
- Lang, T.G., Pryor, K. (1966). Hydrodynamic Performance of Porpoises (Stenella attenuata). Science, 152, 3721, 531–533.
- Pryor, T., Pryor, K.,& Norris, S.K. (1965). Observations on a Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata Gray) from Hawaii. Journal of Mammalogy, 46, 3, 450–461.
References
- ^Pryor, Karen; Chase, Sheila (2014). "Training for Variable and Innovative Behavior". International Journal of Comparative Psychology. 2 (27): 361–368. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
- ^"Operants: A Newsletter of the B.F Skinner Foundation". B.F Skinner Foundation Newsletter. Vol. 2. Second Quarter 2008. pp. 1–3.
- ^"Pryor, Karen 1932". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
- ^ abGreen, Penelope (February 1, 2025). "Karen Pryor, Guru of Positive Reinforcement, Is Dead at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^"Karen Pryor Biography". Karen Pryor. 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- ^"Gale T. Pryor Is Wed to Karl D. Leabo". The New York Times. July 15, 1985.
- ^"About". Karen Pryor Academy. Retrieved 2025-06-06.
- ^Abrahams, Marc (2025-01-05). "Sad news: Karen Pryor has died". improbable.com. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
External links
- 1932 births
- 2025 deaths
- 21st-century American psychologists
- American women psychologists
- Behaviourist psychologists
- American family and parenting writers
- American animal care and training writers
- Writers from New York (state)
- Cornell University alumni
- 20th-century American women writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American women writers
- American women non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American psychologists