Lorenz

• Procedure:

  • Randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs.
  • Half eggs were hatched with mother goose and other half in an incubator.
  • Incubator- First moving object they saw was Lorenz.
• Findings:

  • I group followed Lorenz around, where as control group followed their mother around.
  • When two groups mixed up- control group still followed their mother and experimental group followed Lorenz.
• This is called imprinting- birds species mobile from birth attach and follow the first moving object they see.
• Lotrnze identified a critical period- 12 hours
• Strength: Research support

  • Existence of support for the concept of imprinting.
  • Regaling and Vallortigara (1995) supports Lorenz's idea of imprinting- chicks exposed to simple shape combinations that moved.
  • Range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely.
  • Supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development.
• Limitation: generalisability to humans

  • Ability to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans.
  • Mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than it is for birds.
  • E.G.- attachment in mammals is a two-way process- not just the young who become attached but mothers too.
  • Means that it is possibly not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas to humans.