Konrad lorenz contribution to psychology

Lorenz 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. 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.

The other group followed the mother goose. Lorenz found that geese follow the first moving object they see. This process is known as imprinting, and suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.

Konrad lorenz imprinting

Lorenz believed that once imprinting has occurred, it cannot be reversed, nor can a gosling imprint on anything else. To ensure imprinting had occurred, Lorenz put all the goslings together under an upturned box and allowed them to mix. For example, Guiton using chicks showed yellow rubber gloves to feed them during the critical period and the chicks imprinted on the glove.

This suggests that young animal imprint on any moving thing present during the critical period of development. The chicks were then later found trying to mate with the yellow rubber glove. Imprinting does not appear to be active immediately after hatching, although there seems to be a critical period during which imprinting can occur.

What did konrad lorenz discover

Hess 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. Lorenz and Hess believe that once imprinting has occurred, it cannot be reversed, nor can a gosling imprint on anything else.

Imprinting has consequences, both for short-term survival, and in the longer term forming internal templates for later relationships.