animal studies Flashcards
what was Lorenzo’s procedure to investigate imprinting?
he used a classical experiment where he divided goose eggs randomly and allowed half to hatch and see the mother first and half to hatch as see him first
what sis Lorenzo finding when investigating imprinting?
the incubator group followed Lorenzo everywhere and the control group followed the mother, this happened even if the groups were mixed
what is imprinting?
when a mobile bird species forms a attachment to the first moving object they see in the critical period
what did Lorenzo investigate when looking at sexual imprinting?
the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences
how did Lorenzo investigate sexual imprinting?
1952 case study of a peacock and the giant tortoises
he observed that birds who attachment to humans would often show courtship behaviors towards humans
Can we generalize Lorenzo’s findings?
no as mammal attachment systems work differently to birds attachment systems
Why does Guiton et al critisise Lorenzo’s findings on sexual imprinting?
as when we replicated the experiment using chicks and a yellow wash cloth , later in life the chicks would try and mate with it but would late go on to mate with other chickens due to experience, meaning the effect is not permanent
What type of monkeys did Harlow use?
Rhesus monkeys
What was Harlow’s procedure?
Harlow either raised the baby monkey with a cloth mother that gave milk and a wire mother, or a wire mother that gave milk and a cloth mother
what was Harlow investigating?
the importance of contact comfort
What did Harlow find?
Baby monkeys cuddled the cloth mother rather than the wire mother and done this even when frightened, showing contact comfort is more important than food in attachment
What did Harlow find when following the monkeys as they grew up?
those raised by the wire monkey were more dysfunctional, but both groups didn’t develop normal social behavior, they were more aggressive, less social able, unskilled at mating and often neglected, attacked or even killed their young
what are the implication of Harlow’s research?
Harlow demonstrated the effect of neglect, changing abuses classification and training for mid-wives and social workers
what were the ethical issues of Harlow’s experiment?
the monkeys suffered greatly but this may be justified by the importance of the research
can we genralise Harlow’s finding?
no as whilst monkeys are similar to humans they are still not humans
