animal studies Flashcards
Who conducted the 2 animals studies and what are they called
Lorenz (1935) - Imprinting
Harry Harlow (1959) - contact comfort
What is imprinting
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother/1st object seen during a specific time in development (usually the first hours after birth /hatching
What are the critical periods
give examples
When the window of attachment is open
Birds - 4 - 24hrs
Monkeys - 90 days
Humans - 6 months - 2.5 years
What was the aim of Lorenz’s study
Investigate mechanisms of imprinting where the youngsters follow and form attachments to the first large moving object they meet
What was the procedure of Lorenz’s study
Lorenz used gosling eggs and randomly divided them into groups
- One group was left with the mother to hatch naturally and have the mother as the first thing they saw (control group)
- Another group was that they hatched in an incubator so the first living thing they saw was Lorenz
They were then brought together and tested to see who they would follow when both the mother and Lorenz was present
What were the findings and the conclusion of Lorenz’s study
Findings - The goslings quickly divided with one group following the natural mother and the other Lorenz (same groups as before)
- Lorenz brood showed no recognition of their natural mother
conclusion - Suggests goslings imprint on a persistently present moving object seen within the first 24hrs
Supports the theory of imprinting
How would you evaluate Lorenz’s research
- Research support
- Generalisability to humans
How would you evaluate Lorenz’s research
(research support)
Guiton et al found that chicks imprinted on yellow rubber gloves used when finding them demonstrating young animals do not necessarily imprint on their biological mother but rather the first moving thing they encounter
supports Lorenz’s work that imprinting is an innate process and adds validity to Lorenz’s conclusion
How would you evaluate Lorenz’s research
(Generalisability to human)
Human attachment is far more complex and cannot be compared to birds
Birds imprinting is very short ranging from 4-24hrs whereas humans it extends from 6 months - 2.5 years
Also human attachment is influenced by emotional bonding, social interaction and caregiving quality etc
Lacks generalisability to humans
What was the aim of Harlow’s research
To demonstrate that mother love (attachment) was not based on the feeding bond between mother an infant but the contact comfort they provide
What was the procedure of Harlow’s research
He used orphan infant monkeys and placed them with 2 different surrogate mothers
- Soft cloth surrogate mother with no food
- Wired surrogate mother with food
He measured the time over 165 days that was spent of each surrogate mother
Also the behaviour if the monkey in response to a fearful event
What were the findings and conclusions in Harlow’s study
Findings:
All monkeys spent more time on the soft cloth surrogate mother (18hrs a day)
When frightened all monkeys clung to the cloth covered mother to provide comfort
Conclusions:
These findings suggest infants do not develop an attachment to the caregiver who feeds them but the one offering contact comfort
What happened to the maternally deprived monkeys in adulthood
All monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable than the other monkeys and bred less. Even when some became mothers they neglected their young, attacked or even killed them
How would you evaluate harlows research
- Extraneous variables
- Generalisability of animals to human research
How would you evaluate Harlows research
(extraneous variables)
Both surrogate mothers had different heads. For example the cloth covered monkey resembled more of a monkey head
They act as an extraneous variable and we don’t know and we don’t know if the money chose the cloth covered surrogate because they preferred the head and has an attachment or the comfort of the cloth
Raises issues with internal validity
How would you evaluate Harlow’s research
(Generalisability of animal studies to human research)
More generalisable than Lorenz as monkeys are more similar to humans than birds as we share more cognitive and social traits. So its more appliable to human infants than goslings
However human attachments are over a longer period of time (6 months - 2.5 years) than monkeys (90 days) furthermore human infants have a reciprocal (2 way) attachment but monkeys are shown to not
