Lorenz and goslings 🪿

• Lorenz


  1935
• Procedure


  1. Divided clutch of gosling eggs into 2 groups:

  2. Group 1: With natural mother

  3. Group 2: Placed in an incubator

  4. When incubator chicks hatched, first thing they saw was Lorenz and started following him around

  5. To test effect of imprinting, Lorenz marked the two groups to distinguish them and placed them together; they had become imprinted on him (incubator chicks)

  6. Both Lorenz and their natural mother were present
• Goslings


  • Quickly divided themselves up
  • Group 1 following natural mother
  • Group 2 following Lorenz
• Lorenz's brood


  • Showed no recognition to their natural mother
• Imprinting


  A process restricted to a very definite period of the young animals life (a critical period)
• If a young animal is NOT exposed to a moving object in this critical period they will not imprint
• Lorenz observed that imprinting to humans does not occur in humans
• Aim: To study behaviour of animals under relatively natural conditions ( involved some manipulation )
• Imprinting - a process similar to attachment in that it binds a young animal to a caregiver in a special relationship, if imprinting is not made within the critical period, no attachment made.
• Long-Lasting Effects: process is irreversible and long lasting - animals will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted. ( 1952 )
• Evaluation:

  • Other studies have demonstrated imprinting in animals

  Guilton ( 1966 ) - leghorn chicks exposed to rubber gloves while being fed in the first few weeks became imprinted on the gloves

  This shows that.....

  Young animals are not born with a predisposition to imprint on a specific type of object but only moving thing that is present during the critical period of their development.
• Evaluation:

  • Disputes over characteristics of imprinting

  Guilton ( 1966 ) - found that he could reverse the imprinting in chickens that had initially tried to mate with the rubber gloves, found that, later, after spending time with thier own species, they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens.