Animal Studies Flashcards
What is the definition of imprinting?
A phenomenon observed in the natural world and describes the process by which young animals follow and form attachment to the first large moving object they meet. It is mainly exhibited by nidifugous birds (ones that leave their nest early)
Who studied imprinting? And what animal did they study
- Lorenz
- Geese/Goslings
What was Lorenz’ aim?
Lorenz wanted to investigate the mechanism of imprinting
What was the DV in Lorenz’ study?
How many incubated goslings went to Lorenz/ How many naturally hatched went to the mother goose
What was the procedure of Lorenz’ study?
- Lorenz took separated a large clutch of goose eggs, half were left with the mother goose, half Lorenz kept and incubated
- When geese hatched Lorenz imitated quacking sounds, he then observed behaviour
- He marked all the goslings to distinguish how they’d hatched
- placed all goslings together in an upturned box, released them and observed their behaviour
what were the results of Lorenz’ study
- critical period for imprinting is between 4 and 25 hours
- bonds proved to be irreversible
- naturally hatched followed their mother, incubated followed Lorenz
- Goslings that imprinted on humans attempted to mate with humans in the future
What was the conclusion of Lorenz’s study?
- the fact that imprinting was irreversible suggests it is an innate process that is biologically triggered rather than learnt
- the concept of a critical period has been carried on to theories of human attachment (Bowlby)
- that fact that adult geese tried to mate with humans suggests that imprinting is important for later relationships as well as short term survival
What did Harlow Study?
Maternal deprivation in rhesus monkeys
What was Harlows Aim?
Harlow wanted to investigate whether attachments were primarily formed through food as explained by learning theory or through comfort.
What was the DV of Harlows study?
Time spent with each mother, as well as feeding
What was the procedure of Harlows study?
- 16 monkeys separated from their mothers at birth and placed in cage with access to two surrogate mothers, one made of wire and one covered in terry-towelling cloth, they were studied for 165 days
- key condition : wire mother produces milk, cloth mother does not
- amount of time spent with each mother was recorded
- monkeys frightened by loud noise to test for preference
- placed in large cage to test degree of exploration
What were the results of Harlows study? (5 things)
- Monkey’s preferred contact with cloth mother regardless of whether she produced milk
- would only go to the wire mother when hungry
- monkeys with only wire mother had diarrhoea- sign of stress
- when frightened took refuge with cloth mother if available
- would explore more when cloth mother was present
What were the conclusions of Harlow’s study?
- supports the evolutionary theory of attachment - sensitivity and security of caregiver is more important than food
- Harlow concluded that for a monkey to develop normally they must have some interaction with an object to which they cling to for the critical period
- clinging is a natural response in times of stress
Summarise evaluations for Lorenz’s study
- Low generalisability- geese to humans
- high reliability - standardised procedure
- good applications - knowing imprinting happens early
- low ecological validity - incubated eggs
- ethical issues - goslings suffered from long term effects
Summarise evaluations in Harlows study
- Low generalisability- monkeys vs humans - but evolution suggests we evolved from them
- High reliability- clear standardised procedure with 4 clear set conditions
- good applications - has helped improve daycare/comfort over food
- low ecological validity - monkeys were in cages in a lab experiment
- ethical issues - monkeys separated from mothers, purposely scared etc.
