Lorenz Goose Study (1935) Flashcards
Who was Konrad Lorenz
An ethologist
-> someone who studies animal behaviour in their natural environment
What did Lorenz want to study
Imprinting
-> this is the instinct in several species of animals to attach to the first moving thing they see after they are born
Lorenz (1935) Procedure - Gosling eggs
-> took a clutch of gosling (goose) eggs
-> divided them into 2 groups
-> one group = hatching with their natural mother present
-> one group = in an incubator, & first moving thing they saw when they hatched was Lorenz
- Lorenz marked the 2 groups to distinguish between them and then placed them all together again
Lorenz (1935) Findings - how did the goslings act
The Goslings quickly divided themselves up, one group following their natural mother and the other (the ones from the incubator) following Lorenz.
-> incubator goslings showed no recognition of their natural mother.
Lorenz Findings about imprinting (1935)
-> process of imprinting is restricted to a the ‘critical period’ - a definite period of a young animal’s life
-> If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during this early critical period then the animal will not imprint.
-> Animals imprint on consistently moving objects during their first two days.
-> Imprinting is similar to attachment in that it binds an animal to a caregiver in a special relationship.
What did Lorenz have to teach the Goslings to do
-> how to swim
+ they would always return to him when he called.
What Effects did Lorenz note about imprinting (1935)
- that the process is irreversible & long lasting (e.g. one of the geese used to sleep on his bed every night)
- that early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences (sexual imprinting)
What is sexual imprinting / it’s effect
Animals (esp birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted
(+) of Lorenz - other research support (Gutton 1966)
Other studies support the idea that animals are born with an instinct to attach to the first moving object they see.
-> Gutton (1966) demonstrated that chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves during feeding in their first few weeks of life imprinted on the gloves.
(-) how imprinting is actually reversible ; also Gutton 1966
Imprinting = more reversible than Lorenz thought.
-> Gutton (1966) 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.
