animal studies

Question 1

lorenz procedure

Answer 1

● Randomly divided 12 goose eggs → half hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment and the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
● Mixed goslings together to see whom they would follow

Question 2

lorenz finding

Answer 2

● Incubator group followed Lorenz
● Control group followed the mother
● Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting need to take place = few (4-25) hours after hatching
● If imprinting did not occur in that time, chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure
● These bonds proved to be irreversible - suggesting that imprinting is biological

Question 3

harlow procedure

Answer 3

● Reared 16 rhesus monkeys, each put into a cage with either two or one wire model ‘mothers’
● There were 4 conditions:
- Condition 1: a cage containing a wire mother producing milk and a towelling mother producing no milk
- Condition 2: a cage containing a wire mother producing no milk and a towelling mother producing milk
- Condition 3: a cage with the wire mother alone
- Condition 4: a cage with the towelling mother alone
● Measured the amount of time that monkeys spent with each surrogate mother
● The reactions of the monkeys to more frightening situations were observed e.g. loud noises

Question 4

harlow findings

Answer 4

● Baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered towelling mother in preference to the wire one regardless of which dispensed milk → this suggests that contact comfort was more important than food in attachment
● The monkeys sought comfort from the towelling mother when frightened
● Monkeys with only the wire mother suffered from diarrhea (a sign of stress)
● As adults, the monks that had been deprived of their real mothers suffered severe consequences:
- More aggressive
- Less sociable
- Less skilled in mating than other monkeys
- Neglected and sometimes killed their own offspring