Studies from animal research Flashcards
Who studied the phenomenon of imprinting
An ethologist called Lorenz
Procedure of Lorenz’s study
set up a experiment where he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half were hatched with mother group in natural environment while half were hatched in incubator where they saw Lorenz first thing after they hatched.
Findings of Lorenz’s study
Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed their mother. When the two groups were mixed up the group continued to follow the person who they hatched with. Lorenz called this imprinting. He also identified a critical period in which the imprinting needs to take place
Define imprinting
Bird species attach to and follow the first moving object they see
Critical period
If imprinting does not occur with in a few hours after hatching Lorenz found that the chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure
Sexual imprinting
relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. In a case study by Lorenz a peacock was reared in a reptile zoo where the first moving thing it saw was a giant tortoises. As an adult the peacock displayed courtship behaviour towards on giant tortoises.
Who researched the importance of contact comfort
Harry Harlow
Procedure of Harlow’s research
He reared 16 baby monkey’s with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother
Findings of Harlow’s research
Monkey cuddled the soft object and sought comfort from the cloth covered monkey regardless of who dispensed the milk. This showed that contact comfort was more important to the monkeys than food.
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults
Harlow also investigated the effects of maternal deprivation on the monkeys who were deprived of a real mother. Monkeys reared with wire model were the most dysfunctional and even those who developed with the soft wire model were not normal:
-They were more aggressive
-less sociable
-bred less often (unskilled at mating).
As mothers some of them neglected their young and attacked their children, even killing them in some cases.
Critical period for normal development
Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for these monkeys. A mother figure had to be reintroduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to be formed. After this time attachment becomes impossible and cannot be irreversible.
