animal studies Flashcards
what is imprinting
A rapid learning process that takes place early in the life of a social
animal (such as geese) and establishes a behaviour pattern (such as
recognition of an attraction to its own kind or a substitute)
Aim of Lorenz study?
to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet.
This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically
Two conditions of Lorenz study?
Eggs went to two conditions:
1. With the mother and hatched with the mother.
2. In an incubator and they hatched with Lorenz
Procedure and findings?
-He mixed the goslings up and saw who they went to (mother or Lorenz)
-The ones who hatched with mother and saw mother first went to mother.
-The ones who hatched with Lorenz and saw Lorenz first went to Lorenz.
-He then varied the time between birth and seeing a moving object to calculate the critical period.(13-16 hours after hatch)
Conclusions of Lorenz (1952)
-Lorenz’s research suggests that organisms have a biological propensity to form attachments to one single subject.
-Once goslings had hatched, they proceeded to follow the first moving object that they saw between 13 & 16 hours after hatching.
- It supports the view that having a biological basis for an attachment is
adaptive as it promotes survival.
Strength of Lorenz?
Supporting studies of imprinting
Another researcher fed chicks using plastic yellow gloves and they imprinted onto the gloves.
Supports view that imprinting is innate and not too a specific object
Also found chicks tried to mate with the glove
Supports Lorenz
Limitation of Lorenz?
Limited application
Humans very psychologically different
Means cannot be extrapolated and generalised to humans
What was the aim of Harlow?
Harlow wanted to find out if monkeys attach to mothers because they feed them or because they provide a safe environment.
Harlow 1958 procedure?
Harlow conducted research with 16 rhesus monkeys which were caged from infancy with wire mesh food dispensing and cloth-covered
surrogate mothers, to investigate which of the two alternatives would have more attachment behaviours directed towards it.
IV= type of mother (wire mother or cloth mother)
DV= amount of time spent with each surrogate mother and the amount of time they cried for their biological mother
Results of Harlow (1958)
Harlow found that when given a choice of surrogate mother, the baby monkeys preferred to make contact with the cloth mother, irrespective of whether she dispensed milk or not. It was observed that they would even stretch across to the wire mother to get food whilst still clinging onto the cloth mother for contact and comfort.
The babies in the condition with only the wire mother showed signs of stress such as diarrhoea. When startled by the loud noise, the baby monkeys would cling to the cloth mother if this was available.
When given larger cages, greater exploration behaviour was seen by
the baby monkeys with the cloth mother which indicates emotional
security
Conclusion of Harlow (1958)
Baby monkeys appear to have an innate drive to seek contact and
comfort from their parent suggesting that attachment is formed
through an emotional need for security rather than food, which
contradicts the learning theory.
This contact with the mother is associated to a higher willingness to
explore their surroundings and lower levels of stress
Affect of maternal deprivation on some of the Rheus monkeys?
isolated monkeys displayed long-term dysfunctional behaviour
illustrates,that early attachment experiences predict long-term social development.
Despite being fed, isolated monkeys failed to develop functional social behaviour, which would suggest that animals have greater needs that just the provision of food.
Harlow found that monkeys reared with wire mothers only were the most
dysfunctional. Even those reared with a soft toy as a substitute did not
develop normal social behaviour. They were less sociable and more
aggressive which makes them less likely to mate.
When these female monkeys grew up, they neglected their young babies and
some attacked their children, even killing them in some cases
What did Harlow find the critical period was
Harlow concluded that a mother figure had to be introduced to an
infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form.
After this time attachment was impossible to form and the damage
done by early deprivation is irreversible
Limitation of Harlow
Unethical
Rheus monkeys showed great distress
All monkeys showed issues in social development after experiment
Does not tell us about human attachment so is not worth the ethical breaks.
Lack of generalisability makes it more unethical
Strength of Harlow?
Controlled lab setting
Was able to control all extraneous variables
Means he intended what he measured to
Increases validity
Another strength
Real life application
Shows importance of attachment in development
Helps zoo programmes
