animal studies - Lorenz

• what is imprinting according to Lorenz

  Certain animals such as many bird species, are known to attach to their mother strongly; the infant animal will then follow their mother. Lorenz termed this imprinting
• Lorenz tested imprinting
• Lorenz(1935) procedure

  Greylag goose 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.
• Lorenz(1935) Findings

  • The goslings who Lorenz hatched imprinted on him, following him rather than the mother Goose. The goslings hatched in a natural environment imprinted on the Mother and followed her. Lorenz placed all the goslings in a box, the goslings who had imprinted on Lorenz found him and continued to follow him
  • Lorenz found that the goslings had a critical period of around 32 hours; if a gosling didn't see a large moving object to imprint on in these hours, it lost the ability to imprint
  • goslings imprinted onto humans would as matured birds, attempt to mate with humans
• Lorenz's research suggests imprinting is a strong evolutionary/biological feature of attachment in certain birds and imprinting is with the first large object visually seen, not other potential cues(smell, sound)
• imprinting is an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother, which takes place at a specific time in development. If it doesn't happen at this time, it probably won't(there is a critical period)
• Sexual imprinting - the idea that imprinting can affect adult mate preferences. Animals will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted.
• • Babies do not imprint instantly like birds, but the same concepts and importance of attachment holds true.
  • Bowlby developed a theory of attachment which suggests there is a critical period for developing an attachment in humans (about 2 years). If an attachment has not developed during this period, then the child will suffer from irreversible developmental consequences e.g. reduced intelligence and increased aggression.
• Lorenz’s research investigates the Evolutionary Explanation of attachment suggesting that infants are pre-programmed to form an attachment from the second that they are born. The findings from Lorenz’s research offers support for the idea that infants have an attachment gene and that they imprint on a caregiver not long after birth.