Animal theories Flashcards
What do animal studies look at?
They look at the formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring
What does Lorenz (1952) investigate
Imprinting
what is imprinting
imprinting is an innate readiness to develop a stern bond with the mother, which takes place during a specific time in development
What is the time frame for imprinting
First few hours after birth
what happens if imprinting doesn’t occur
if it doesn’t happen it probably never will. There’s a critical period which is irreversible and long lasting.
what is sexual imprinting
The idea that imprinting can affect adult male preferences.
Outline Lorenz’s (1952) study on imprinting
He had a sample of grey geese eggs. the two groups were spilt between the first moving object being Lorenz (experimental group) and the birth mother (control group). they then hatched with their mother in their natural environment and the others hatch in an incubator.
What did Lorenz find from his (1952) study on imprinting
He found that the geese imprinted on the first moving object that they saw,. the experimental group imprinted on lorenz and the control group imprinted on the mother.
Regaling (1992), conducted research to support lorenz what were his findings.
He found that chickens more closely followed the first moving shape that they saw, even when new shapes were introduced.
Seeback (2005) has supporting research for Lorenz. What were his findings.
He found that humans imprinted on their first computer system and stay with that system and reject others.
Harlow (1958) also conducted a study into comfort vs nourishment. Outline his study.
8 baby rhesus monkeys, each with a cloth (had no food) and wire mother (dispensed milk). He observed the monkeys to see which theyd pick when isolated and when frightened
What were Harlow’s (1958) study’s findings
He found that the rhesus monkeys picked the cloth mother over the wire mother in ever experiment. He also found that the rhesus monkeys explored more when the cloth mother was present compared to the wire mother. Also a lot of the monkeys without a cloth mother ended up dying.
