Lorenz A01

• Lorenz took..

  -a clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to hatch out.

  -half the eggs were then placed under a goose mother while Lorenz kept the other half beside himself for several hours
• When the geese hatched what did Lorenz do?

  -imitated a mother duck's quacking sounds upon which the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him

  -the other group followed the mother goose
• Lorenz found that the geese follow the

  -first moving object they see during a 12-17 hours critical period after hatching

  -this is known as imprinting which suggests attachment is innate
• What did Lorenz observe about imprinting

  -occurs without any feeding taking place

  -if no attachment has developed within 32 hours it unlikely any attachment will ever develop
• To ensure that imprinting had occurred

  -Lorenz put all the goslings together under an upturned box and allowed them to mix
• What did Hess (1958) show?

  -showed that although imprinting could occur as early as one hour after hatching the strongest responses occurred between 12-17 hours after hatching

  -after 32 hours the response was unlikely to occur at all
• Lorenz and Hess believed that

  -once imprinting has occurred it cannot be reversed nor can a gosling imprint on anything else