At - Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
What is imprinting?
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it doesn’t happen at his time it probably will not happen.
Describe the procedure of Lorenz’s study of animal attachments
- Took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into 2 groups. One group was left with their natural mother while the other eggs were placed in an incubator.
- When the incubator eggs hatched, the first living (moving) thing they saw was Lorenz and they soon started following him around.
- To test this effect of imprinting he marked the 2 groups to distinguish them and placed them together; they had become imprinted on him. Both Lorenz and their natural mother were present.
Describe the findings of Lorenz’s study of animal attachments
- The goslings quickly divided themselves up, one following their natural mother and the other group following Lorenz.
- Lorenz’s brood showed no recognition of their natural mother.
- He noted that this process of imprinting is restricted to a very definite period of the young animal’s life, called a critical period.
- If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during this early critical period the animal will not imprint.
- This suggests animals can imprint on a persistently present moving object seen within its first 2 days.
- He did observe that imprinting to humans does not occur in same animals such as curlews.
What did Lorenz say about imprinting and the critical period?
If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during this early critical period the animal will not imprint. This suggests animals can imprint on a persistently present moving object seen within its first 2 days.
What long lasting effects did Lorenz discover?
The process of imprinting is irreversible and long lasting - one of the geese used to sleep on his bed every night.
He also noted that this early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences, called sexual imprinting - animals (especially birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon they were imprinted.
When did Lorenz discover there were long lasting effects due to not imprinting?
1952
When did lorenz carry out his animal attachment study?
1935
Who carried out animal studies of attachment and when?
Lorenz - 1935
Harlow - 1959
Describe the procedure of Harlow’s study of animal attachments
- He created 2 wire mothers each with a different ‘head’.
- One wire mother was additionally wrapped in soft cloth.
- 8 infant rhesus monkeys were studied for a period of 165 days.
- For 4 of the monkeys the milk bottle was on the cloth-covered mother and on the plain wire ‘mother’ for the other 4 monkeys.
- During that time measurements were made of the amount of time each infant spent with the 2 different ‘mothers’.
- Observations were also made of the monkey infants’ responses when frightened by, for example, a mechanical teddy bear.
Describe the findings for Harlow’s study of animal attachments
- All 8 monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth-covered mother whether or not this mother had the feeding bottle.
- Those monkeys who fed from the wire mother only spent a short amount of time getting milk and then returned to the cloth-covered mother.
- When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth-covered mother seemingly for reassurance.
What do Harlow’s findings suggest?
That infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort.
When did Harlow discover there were long lasting effects due to not imprinting?
1959
What long lasting effects did Harlow discover?
- The motherless monkeys, even those who did have contact comfort, developed abnormally. They were socially abnormal - they froze or fled when approached by other monkeys. And they were sexually abnormal - they did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their own babies.
What did Harlow say about the critical period?
If the motherless monkeys spent time with their monkey ‘peers’ they seemed to recover but only if this happened before they were 3 months old. Having more than 6 months with only a wire mother was something they did not appear able to recover from.
