lorenz - imprinting Flashcards
(12 cards)
what is imprinting
where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet suggesting attachment is biological and innate
how did lorenz study imprinting
he split clutch of goose eggs into 2 groups:
experimental: lorenz kept half the goose eggs hatching them in an incubator, making sure he’d be the first moving object the goslings would see
control: the other hald were kept with a goose mother.
what did lorenz do when the geese hatched
he imitated a mother duck’s quacking sound so the young geese would consider him their mother and follow him around as a result, whereas the other group followed mother goose
what did lorenz find
geese follow the first moving object they see - imprinting
what does lorenz believe about imprinting
that it cannot be reversed, and that goslings can’t imprint on anything else
how did lorenz ensure imprinting occured
he gathered all the geese into an upturned box and made them mix. when he removed the box the geese split between who they considered their mother.
what 2 conclusions did lorenz make about imprinting
- there is a critical period where imprinting needs to take place (can be a few hours after hatching)
- if imprinting doesn’t occur chicks dont attach to a mother figure
what are the consequences and principle of imprinting
it takes place without feeding
the consequences are emphasised for short term survival and in the long term - forming internal templates for later relationships
strength - further studies supporting evidence peet
p: supporting evidence by further studies such as guiton’s study
e: guiton used chicks and rubber gloves to feed them during the critical period. the chicks imprinted on the glove. suggesting young animals imprint on any moving thing present during critical period.
e: furthermore the chicks were later found trying to mate with the glove, largely corroborating with the findings originally in lorenz’s study that imprinting has long lasting effects - irreversible change affecting social and sexual behaviour
strength - further studies supporting evidence peet therefore
t: study supports validity of conclusion that animals imprint biologically to form attachments as well as supporting the reliability of lorenz’s imprinting method as the findings are consistent.
weakness - contradictory evidence pet
p: there is contradictory evidence into the finding that imprinting cannot be reversed
e: according to hoffman imprinting is now seen as ‘plastic and forgiving mechanism’ rather than being irreversible. guiton found he could reverse the effects of imprinting on the gloves by encouraging chickens to spend time with their own species. suggesting imprinting may not be different than any other kind of learning
t: reduces validity of lorenz’s findings
weakness - generalisability pet
p: the idea of imprinting cannot be generalised to humans
e: imprinting applies mainly to precocial animals (mobile soon after birth) whereas humans are atricial species (born at an early stage of development. imprinting may not apply to humans because precocial animals are ready to leave their parents sooner therefore attachments may happen faster
t: can’t extrapolate findings from lorenz’s research to humans to explain attachment leading to low population validity.
