Lorenz animal study

Question 1

What is imprinting?

Answer 1

An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother, which takes place during a specific time in development (critical period) - if not done in the critical period, no imprinting & no attachment

Question 3

What was the aim of Lorenz’s animal study using geese?

Answer 3

To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting, where the young follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet (how imprinting works)

Question 4

What was the produce of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 4

• He split a batch of gosling eggs into two
• Batch A was left with the mother goose
• Batch B was left in an incubator supervised by Lorenz (when hatched, Batch B geese were marked blue)

Question 5

What happened when the geese hatched in Lorenz’s study?

Answer 5

• from a young age Batch A followed the mother goose and batch B followed Lorenz

Question 6

How did Lorenz test different conditions and what did he find?

Answer 6

• Both batches were placed under a box (to confuse and stress them)
• when the box was removed, they sought comfort from their ‘secure base’/primary attachment
• Even under confusion, Batch A still went to their mother and Batch B still went to Lorenz
• Batch B showed no interest in the mother
• shows that attachment is innate but doesn’t need to be with the mother, just the first large moving object they see after birth

Question 7

What was the critical period that Lorenz discovered?

Answer 7

In the first two days, if no moving object was present, there was no imprinting taken place and therefore no attachment

Question 8

What was the conclusion of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 8

Lorenz concluded that:

• imprinting is a form of attachment
• long lasting affects (irreversible & affects matching and attachments)

Question 9

Positives of Lorenz’s study

Answer 9

• time frame of the critical period influenced Bowlby’s idea of imprinting in human babies
• Guiton 1966 - replicated the study with Hens and yellow rubber gloves, found the same results BUT also managed to reverse the imprinting

Question 10

Negatives of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 10

• Extrapolation (can’t generalise animal studies to humans cos we ain’t the same bruh)
• If imprinting is irreversible it suggests the use of biology as learned behaviours can be modified by experience