goslings imprint on the first thing they see and follow it around as a survival mechanism to be able to keep safe, get food and learn to swim etc
procedure?
lorenz split a clutch of goose eggs
with a mother in a natural environment
in an incubator where they seelorenzfirst
findings? groups
-incubator group followed lorenz
-control group followed mother
this continued even after the groups were mixed together
findings? critical period
can be as brief as a few hours, if imprinting doesnt occur then no attatchments are made
findings? sexual imprinting
birds that imprinted on a human often later displayed courtship behaviour to humans
AO3 - generalisability
-although some of lorenz's findings have influenced our understanding of human development the findings cannot be generalised
AO3 - mammals different to birds
-mammal mothers show more emotional attatchment to their young than birds do
-mammals may be able to form attatchments at any time unlike birds although it would be harder than during infancy
AO3 - imprinting doesnt happen with humans
babies are immobile at birth so cannot imprint by following the mother around however skin to skin contactimmediately after birth is said to relax both the mother and baby which could be seen as similar
AO3 - lorenz has been questioned
lorenz said that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour but a study tested this by a chickenimprinting on a yellow glove, it showed that with experience the chickens learned to prefer mating with other chickens
