lorenz

• Lorenz used greylag geese to study attachment, and a process called imprinting. This is an instinctive process in birds where an attachment is formed to the first thing they see upon hatching.
• Lorenz randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs into 2 groups. The control group hatched in natural conditions with their mother goose, who was the first thing the baby geese saw upon hatching. The experimental group hatched in an incubator away from their mother, where the first thing they saw upon hatching was Lorenz.
• Lorenz marked each group of geese so that he could identify which conditions each goose hatched in. He gathered the geese and then released them all at once and observed whether they followed him or the mother goose. He found that the geese always followed the first object they saw upon hatching.
• Lorenz concluded that attachment is instinctive, as the geese naturally imprinted on an attachment figure after birth without having to learn it.
• Lorenz found a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place, otherwise an attachment is not formed.