attachment 3 - imprinting (lorenz) Flashcards
who was interested in how children become attached to their mothers (imprinting)?
konrad lorenz
what was konrad lorenz interested in?
how children become attached to their mothers (imprinting)
how did lorenz first become interested in imprinting?
when a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling and it followed him around like he was its mother
describe lorenz’s geese experiment and results
he took a group of eggs and split them in half. one half hatched with their biological mother (control group) and the other half hatched with him in an incubator. the incubator group followed him everywhere and the control group followed their mother everywhere, even when both groups were mixed they followed the moving object which they associated with being their parent.
define imprinting
when species become attached to the first moving object they see after birth
what is a critical period?
the time it takes for species to become attached to the first moving object that they see after birth (imprinting)
what would happen if geese were left alone
and imprinting did not take place?
they would never attach themselves to a parent figure
describe how and why lorenz studied the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences
he observed that birds that imprinted on a human as their parents would later show courtship behaviour towards humans. he proved this using a peacock, who was reared within a reptile house where the first animal it saw was a giant tortoise. once it had grown it then showed direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises.
what is sexual imprinting?
showing courtship behaviour to the same species that an animal has imprinted on
why is lorenz only studying imprinting in birds a problem?
we cant generalise the findings on birds to humans
how is the mammaliam attachment system different from that in birds?
mammal mothers show more emotional attachment to their young than birds do
what researcher later questioned lorenz’s conclusions?
guiton et al (1966)
what did guiton et al (1966) find about chickens and yellow washing up gloves? what does this suggest about mating behaviour?
they found that chickens imprinted on some yellow washing up gloves and tried to mate with them when they were adults. then through experience, they learnt that they preferred to mate with other chickens. this suggests that mating behaviour is not as permanent as lorenz believed.
