lorenz

• Lorenz (1935) procedure


  Gosling eggs were randomly divided; half were taken to be hatched by Lorenz using an incubator, and the other half were hatched naturally by the biological mother. In later studies, he varied the time between hatching and when the gosling first observed a moving object.
• Lorenz (1935) findings


  The goslings who Lorenz had hatched imprinted on him, following him rather than the Mother Goose. The goslings hatched in a natural environment, imprinted on the Mother goose and followed her. Lorenz placed all of the goslings in a box. When the goslings were released from the box, the goslings who had imprinted on Lorenz found him and continued to follow him.

  Lorenz found the goslings had a critical period of around 32 hours; if a gosling did not see a large moving object to imprint on in these first few hours, it lost the ability to imprint.
• + Supporting evidence


  E - Guiton used chicks and yellow rubber gloves to feed them during the critical period, and the chicks were imprinted on the glove.

  E - This suggests that young animals imprint on any moving thing present during the critical period of development.

  L - Therefore, this support the idea that Lorenz stated where animals imprint on any moving object during the critical period.
• + Influential on developmental psychology


  E - Lead to developmental psychologists (such as Bowlby) to develop well recognised theories of attachment suggesting the attachment formation takes place during a critical period and is a biological process.

  E - Such theories have been highly influential in the way child care is administered today.

  L - However, Effects may not actually be permanent. Guiton found that while the chicks originally tried to mate with the glove, because of imprinting, their behaviour returned to normal after socialisation with their own species.
• - Findings cannot be generalised


  E - Lorenz conducted his study on animals. Animal studies rely on the assumption that animals and humans develop and learn it the same way.

  E - This is likely not true, as humans are altricial (requiring extra care) whereas animals are precocial (more independent), meaning they develop at different rates.

  L - Therefore, findings from the animals cannot be generalised to humans.
• Lorenz + imprinting


  Certain animals, such as many species of birds, are known to attach to their mother strongly; the infant animal will then follow their mother. Lorenz termed this process imprinting and testing this early bond.
• Lorenz's research suggests imprinting is a strong evolutionary/biological feature of attachment in certain birds, and imprinting is within the first large object visually seen, not other potential cues (i.e. smell or sound).