L10 - Lorenz (1935) Flashcards
1
Q
What did Lorenz want to investigate?
A
- He wanted to investigate ‘imprinting’.
- This is the instinct in several species of animals to attach to the first moving thing they see after they are born.
2
Q
Procedure
A
- Lorenz took a clutch of Gosling eggs and divided them into two groups.
- One group was left to hatch with their natural mother present, while the other eggs were placed in an incubator.
- When the incubator eggs hatched the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz, and Lorenz marked the two groups to distinguish between them.
3
Q
Findings
A
- One group followed their natural mother, and the incubator Goslings followed Lorenz, and showed no recognition of their natural mother.
- Lorenz found that this process of imprinting is restricted to a period of a young animals life, called a ‘critical period’.
- Animals imprint on consistently moving objects during their first 2 days. Imprinting is similar to attachment in that it binds an animal to a caregiver.
4
Q
Long Term Effects
A
- Lorenz noted several features of imprinting, for example the process is irreversible and long lasting. One of the Geese that imprinted on him, called Martina, used to sleep on his bed every night.
- Lorenz also discovered 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 which they were imprinted.
5
Q
+ What is another example that animals are born with an instinct to attach to the first moving object they see?
A
- Gutton (1966) demonstrated that chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves during the feeding in their first few weeks of life imprinted on the gloves.
6
Q
– Is imprinting reversible?
A
- Yes, Gutton found that he could reverse the imprinting in chickens that had initially tried to mate with the yellow rubber gloves. After spending time with their own species they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens.
