Lorenz's goslings

• What method did Lorenz use in his study of attachment in animals?

  Imprinting
• What was the procudure of Lorenz's study?

  • Randomly divide a large amount of goose eggs
  • Half of the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural habitat
  • The other half were hatched in an incubator - the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
• What were the findings of Lorenz's study?

  • The geese hatched in the incubator (experimental group) followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the geese that hatched with the mother (control group) followed the mother
• What is imprinting?


  Bird species that are mobile (eg. ducks and geese) attach & follow the first moving they see
• What was the critical period in which imprinting must happen did Lorenz identity?

  Depending on the species - a few hours after hatching or birth
• What did Lorenz say happens if imprinting does not occur during the critical period?


  The geese would not attach themselves to a mother figure
• What did Lorenz find in his case study of sexual imprinting?

  He found that a peacock who first saw tortoises as the first moving object later directed courtship towards the tortoises
• How does Regolin and Vollortigara's research support Lorenz's study of imprinting?

  • In their study of chicks who first saw a moving shape combination, the chicks would always follow the original shape combination they first saw
  • This supports Lorenz as it proves that some animals are born with the mechanism to imprint on a moving object that they first see during the critical period
• Why is Lorenz's studies hard to generalise to humans?

  The attachment system between birds and humans are different

  eg. In mammals attachment is a two way process rather than, as seen in animals, they imprint on the first moving object they see