Lorenz's study

Question 1

what were the aims?

Answer 1

To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting

Question 2

what was the procedure?

Answer 2

• Lorenz took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two groups
• one group was left with their natural mother while the other edges were placed in an incubator
• when the incubator eggs hatched the first living and moving thing they saw was Lorenz and they started following him around
• to test the effect of imprinting Lorenz marked the two groups to distinguish them and placed them together, they had become imprinted on him. Both Lorenz and their natural mother were present

Question 3

what were the findings?

Answer 3

• the gosling quickly divided themselves up one who followed their natural mother and the other group following Lorenz
• Lorenz’s brood showed no recognition of their natural mother
• Lorenz noted that this process of imprinting is restricted to the critical theory a very definitive period of a young animals’s life
• if a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during the early critical period the animal will not imprint
• it suggests that animals can imprint on a persistently moving object seen within its first two days

Question 4

what were the conclusions?

Answer 4

Imprinting is a form of attachment whereby close contact us kept with the first moving object they see

Question 5

name an evaluation point

Answer 5

there is supporting evidence of the findings and conclusions of the experiment
Guiton in 1966 demonstrated that leghorn chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves whilst being fed during their firsts weeks became imprinted on the gloves
this supports the predisposition that young animals are not born with an innate desire to imprint on a specific type of object but most likely a moving thing that is present during the critical window of development
Guiton also found male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves which suggests that imprinting is related to later reproductive behaviour.

Question 6

Name a second evaluation point for Lorenz’s study

Answer 6

there has been some disagreements about the characteristics of imprinting
for many years people accepted the view that imprinting was an irreversible process and now, it is understood that it is more of a ‘plastic and forgiving mechanism’
Guiton in 1966 found that he could reverse the imprinting on chickens that initially tried to mate with the rubber gloves
he found that if they were to later spend time with their own species they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with chickens
this suggests that imprinting may not be different from other types of learning