Animal Studies Flashcards
What did Lorenz research suggest?
Lorenz’s research suggests that organisms have a biological propensity to form attachments to one single subject.
What Research did Lorenz conduct?
Lorenz conducted an experiment in which goslings were hatched either with their mother or in an incubator. Once goslings had hatched they proceeded to follow the first moving object that they saw between 13 & 16 hours after hatching; in this case, Lorenz.
What did Lorenz’s research support and explain?
It supports the view that having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive as it promotes survival.
This would explain why goslings imprint after a matter of minutes due to their increased mobility; human babies are born immobile and therefore there is less call for them to form an attachment straight away, and so, this develops later (8-9 months).
