Animal Studies of Attachment - Lorenz (1935) Flashcards
Who was Konrad Lorenz?
An ethologist studying animal behaviour under relatively natural conditions.
What was the first step of the procedure?
Division of a clutch of gosling eggs into two groups.
What happened to the first group after the division?
Left with their natural mother.
What happened to the second group after division?
Put in an incubator and the first thing they saw when they hatched was Lorenz.
What did the second group start to do?
Follow Lorenz around.
How did Lorenz test the effect of imprinting?
He marked ‘his’ goslings and put them back into the group with their natural mother.
What were the findings?
Lorenz’s goslings showed no sign of recognising their natural mother and continued to follow Lorenz.
What did Lorenz conclude?
That imprinting on animal had to take place in a critical period, and if they do not imprint in this time it will not happen at all.
What is the critical period as stated by Lorenz?
Up to 2 hours.
What are two long-lasting effects that Lorenz noticed?
Irreversible and has a later effect on mate preferences (sexual imprinting).
What is sexual imprinting?
Animals (especially birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were first imprinted.
