Lorenz

• Lorenz peacock study

  A peacock was reared in a zoo and after hatching, a giant tortoise was the first large moving object it saw

  The peacock then only directed courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises, showing it had undergone sexual imprinting
• Aim

  To investigate imprinting
• imprinting

  some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object they see
• procedure

  divided clutch of goose eggs in half

  • half were hatched naturally with their mother
  • half were hatched in an incubator with Lorenz

  behaviour was recorded
• procedure (2)

  marked the goslings and placed them under a box, which was then removed
• findings

  • those who were hatched naturally followed their mother
  • those hatched in an incubator followed Lorenz
• were the bonds reversible or irreversible?

  irreversible
• conclusion

  imprinting is a form of attachment where close contact is kept with the first large moving object encountered
• sexual imprinting

  animals mate with the same type of object upon which they were imprinted
• positive evaluation

  • supports the concept of imprinting - Guiton did a similar study with chickens, suggesting Lorenz’s results have external validity
• negative evaluation

  • generalisation - cannot generalise from animals to humans - attachment in mammals is a two-way process
  • ethics - goslings that were incubated will not have survival skills as they relied on Lorenz