AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -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.

Detailed explanation-2: -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.

Detailed explanation-3: -According to Lorenz the two most important characteristics of imprinting are irreversibility (the property that after imprinted by a specific object, the organism would always prefer the object to other stimuli) and the existence of critical period.

Detailed explanation-4: -The primary function of imprinting, however, is to enable the young animal to recognize its own mother from among the other adults of its species. This no doubt is particularly important in the case of such animals as sheep, which live in large flocks.

Detailed explanation-5: -When the geese hatched Lorenz imitated a mother duck’s quacking sound, upon which the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him accordingly. The other group followed the mother goose. Lorenz found that geese follow the first moving object they see.