Lorenz

• Lorenzs research (1952)


  Procedure

  1. A large clutch of goose eggs were randomly divided in half
  2. Half were a control group- hatched regularly with their mother
  3. Half were hatched in an incubator and only saw Lorenz for the first 13 to 16 hours of life
• Lorenzs research (1952)


  Findings

  The incubator group - Followed Lorenz everywhere even when mixed up with other gooselings

  The control group - Followed mother around
• Imprinting


  Bird species that are mobile from birth attach and follow the first moving thing they see
• Critical period

  The time in which an animal is able to develop attachments
• Sexual imprinting


  Later mates are chosen based upon the imprinted object
• Lorenzs sexual imprinting study

  A peacock had been reared in a reptile house at a zoo where the first moving object was a giant tortoise

  As an adult the peacock would only show courtship behaviour to tortoises
• EVALUATION - strength - research support


  Regolin

  1. Chicks shown shapes that moved
  2. Followed original shape most closely
• EVALUATION - weakness - generalisability


  You cannot generalise the findings to humans, mammalian attachment is different to birds