Lorenz - geese

• Aims - to see whether geese attach to the first moving object they see

  procedures - set up a classic experiment where he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs

  half of the eggs where hatched with the mother goose in their natural enviornment and the other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
• findings - the group of chicks birthed in the incubator followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group that were hatched with their mother followed her everywhere when the 2 groups where introduced to each other the control group continued to follow their mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz
• critical period

  
  

  • also established a critical period in early stages of a goose’s life = where imprinting needs to occur
  • could be as little as a few hours after hatching
  • if imprinting didn't occur during this critical period = won't attach to a mother figure
  • = will lack mating ability & social skills