Konrad Lorenz's Imprinting Theory. By Saul McLeod, published 2018. Lorenz (1935) investigated the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet. This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.
Lorenz also studied sexual imprinting, which is where animals learn to identify their mate (versus their parents). Konrad Lorenz performed a number of experiments with animals to study their behavior, and is best known for his work with erroneous imprinting on young animals.
The principle of imprinting was actually discovered by Douglas Spaulding, a British biologist, and rediscovered by Oskar Heinroth, Lorenz's friend and mentor. Lorenz also studied sexual imprinting, which is where animals learn to identify their mate (versus their parents).
By Saul McLeod, published 2018 Lorenz (1935) investigated the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet. This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically. He took a large clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to hatch out.
Famously described by zoologist Konrad Lorenz in the 1930s, imprinting occurs when an animal forms an attachment to the first thing it sees upon hatching. Lorenz discovered that newly hatched goslings would follow the first moving object they saw — often Lorenz himself.
1935Lorenz (1935) investigated the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet. This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.
Lorenz demonstrated the phenomenon by appearing before newly hatched mallard ducklings and imitating a mother duck's quacking sounds, upon which the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him accordingly. In 1936 the German Society for Animal Psychology was founded.
Lorenz is recognized as one of the founding fathers of the field of ethology, the study of animal behavior. He is best known for his discovery of the principle of attachment, or imprinting, through which in some species a bond is formed between a newborn animal and its caregiver.
He observed the behavior of geese and how the goslings would follow the first moving object seen and assume as their mother.
Lorenz conducted an experiment in which goslings were hatched either with their mother or in an incubator. Once goslings had hatched they proceeded to follow the first moving object that they saw between 13 & 16 hours after hatching; in this case, Lorenz.
In psychology and ethology, imprinting is any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behaviour.
Rural children have who raised ducks or geese have long known about “imprinting” — or socially bonding to a parent figure. They learned that if they were the first moving object seen by newborn chicks, the young birds would soon follow them around devotedly.
imprinting, in psychobiology, a form of learning in which a very young animal fixes its attention on the first object with which it has visual, auditory, or tactile experience and thereafter follows that object.
Imprinting refers to a critical period of time early in an animal's life when it forms attachments and develops a concept of its own identity. Birds and mammals are born with a pre-programmed drive to imprint onto their mother.
Lorenz (1935) investigated the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet. This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.
To ensure imprinting had occurred Lorenz put all the goslings together under an upturned box and allowed them to mix. When the box was removed the two groups separated to go to their respective 'mothers' - half to the goose, and half to Lorenz.
Half of the eggs were then placed under a goose mother, while Lorenz kept the other half hatched in an incubator, with Lorenz making sure he was the first moving object the newly hatched goslings encountered.
Lorenz found that geese follow the first moving object they see. This process is known as imprinting, and suggests that attachment is innate ...
Hess (1958) showed that although the imprinting process could occur as early as one hour after hatching, the strongest responses occurred between 12 and 17 hours after hatching, and that after 32 hours the response was unlikely to occur at all.
Imprinting occurs without any feeding taking place . However, there are criticisms of imprinting as the concept of imprinting within Lorenz’s study suggests that within this context the object leads to an irreversible situation on the nervous system.