lesson 10- Lorenz

Question 1

Lorenz (1939)

Answer 1

Ethologist, investigating imprinting, the instinct in several species of animals to attach to the first moving thing they see after they are born

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

-took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two groups, one left to hatch with natural mother present, others placed in incubator to hatch so that first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
-marked the two groups to distinguish them and placed them together again

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

-goslings quickly divided themselves up, one group following their natural mother and the other following Lorenz, showed no recognition of their natural mother
-found imprinting is a process restricted to a very definite period of a young animals life called critical period
-if not exposed to a moving object during critical period animal will not imprint, animals imprint on consistently moving objects during their first two days
-binds caregiver and infant in special relationship, Lorenz had to reach the goslings how to swim and would always return to him when he called

Question 4

Long term effects

Answer 4

-process is irreversible and long lasting, martina used to sleep on his bed every night
-had effect on later mating preferences, sexual imprinting, animals especially birds will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted

Question 5

Evaluation (1 of each)

Answer 5

-other support, Gutton (1966) demonstrated that chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves during feeding in their first few weeks of life imprinted on the gloves
-is more reversible than Lorenz thought, Gutton found that he could reverse the imprinting on chicken that had initially tried to mate with yellow rubber gloves, after spending time with own species they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens