Animal Studies of Attachment (Lorenz) (1)

Lorenz (1952) imprinting procedure (1)

Konrad Lorenz randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs:

 

• One half were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment (a control group)

• The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz (the experimental group)

 

Mixed all goslings together too see whom they would follow

 

Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour

Lorenz (1952) imprinting findings and conclusions (1)

Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place (a few hours after hatching)

 

Imprinting = the innate process where newborn birds form an irreversible attachment to the first moving object they encounter during an early period in their life, following for its survival, social bonds are biologically programmed not just learned from the mother.

 

If imprinting does not occur within that time, chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure

Lorenz (1952) imprinting findings and conclusions (2)

Sexual imprinting = occurs whereby an animal develops a template of the desirable characteristics required in a mate

 

Lorenz’s case study =

• Lorenz described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving object the peacock saw w

After hatching were giant tortoises

• As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour toawrds giant tortoises.

Lorenz concluded that this means the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting

A03 - chicks and shapes following first shape (support)

Regaling and Vallortigara exposed chicks to a simple shape combination that moved

 

When shown a range of moving shaped the chicks followed the first one in preference to the other shapes

 

This suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object

• Imprinting happens in the critical period

A03 - generalising from birds to humans (limitation)

The mammalian attachment system is quite different from imprinting in birds

 

For example mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young

 

This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas about imprinting to humans