Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in
psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior. It was first used to describe situations in which an animal or person learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the subject.
Encyclopedia
Imprinting is the term used in
psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior. It was first used to describe situations in which an animal or person learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the subject.
Filial imprinting
The best known form of imprinting is
filial imprinting, in which a young animal learns the characteristics of its parent. It is most obvious in nidifugous birds, who imprint on their parents and then follow them around. It was first reported in domestic
chickens, by the
19th century amateur biologist Douglas Spalding. It was rediscovered by the early ethologist Oskar Heinroth, and studied extensively and popularised by his disciple
Konrad Lorenz working with
greylag geese. Lorenz demonstrated how incubator-hatched geese would imprint on the first suitable moving stimulus they saw within what he called a "critical period" of about 36 hours shortly after hatching. Most famously, the goslings would imprint on Lorenz himself , and he is often depicted being followed by a gaggle of
geese who had imprinted on him. Filial imprinting is not restricted to animals that are able to follow their parents, however; in
child development the term is used to refer to the process by which a baby learns who its mother and father are. The process is recognised as beginning in the womb, when the unborn baby starts to recognise its parents' voices .
The filial imprinting of birds was a primary technique used to create the movie
Le Peuple Migrateur, is an Academy Award [i] nominated 2001 [i] documentary film [i] di...
, which contains a great deal of footage of migratory birds in flight. The birds imprinted on handlers, who wore yellow jackets and honked horns constantly. The birds were then trained to fly along with a variety of aircraft, primarily
ultralights.
The
Italian hang-glider pilot Angelo d'Arrigo extended this technique. D'Arrigo noted that the flight of a non-motorised hang-glider is very similar to the flight patterns of migratory birds: both use updrafts of hot air to gain altitude which then permits soaring flight over distance. He used this fact to enable the re-introduction into the wild of threatened species of
raptors.
Birds which are hatched in captivity have no mentor birds to teach them their traditional migratory routes. D'Arrigo had one solution to this problem. The chicks hatched under the wing of his glider, and imprinted on him. Subsequently, he taught the fledglings to fly and to hunt. The young birds followed him not only on the ground but also in the air as he took the path of various migratory routes. He flew across the
Sahara and over the
Mediterranean Sea to
Sicily with
eagles, from
Siberia to
Iran with a flock of Siberian cranes, and over
Everest with
Nepalese eagles. In 2006, he worked with a
condor in South America.
In a similar project, orphaned
Canada Geese were trained to their normal migration route by the Canadian ultralight enthusiast
Bill Lishman, as shown in the fact based movie drama Fly Away Home.
Sexual imprinting
Sexual imprinting is the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate. For example, male
zebra finches appear to prefer mates with the appearance of the female bird that rears them, rather than mates of their own type .
Sexual imprinting on inanimate objects is a popular theory concerning the development of
sexual fetishism. For example, according to this theory, imprinting on shoes or boots would be the cause of shoe fetishism.
Westermarck effect
Reverse sexual imprinting is also seen: when two people live in close domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one, both are desensitized to later close
sexual attraction and bonding. This phenomenon, known as the
Westermarck effect, was discovered by
anthropologist Edvard Westermarck. The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the
Israeli
kibbutz system, and the Shim-pua marriage customs of
Taiwan, as well as in biological-related families.
In the case of the Israeli
kibbutz farms, these children grew up in a common children's house, away from their parents. They spent the entire day and night together. This resulted in a generation that was not interested in the opposite sex within their class. It is an extreme example of grouping since the adults were also removed from the environment.
When this does not occur, for example where a brother and sister are brought up not knowing about one another, they may find one another highly sexually attractive when they meet as adults: a phenomenon known as genetic sexual attraction. This observation is consistent with the theory that the Westermarck effect evolved to suppress inbreeding.
Westermarck and Freud
Freud argued that members of the same
family naturally lust for one another, making it necessary for
societies to create
incest taboos, but Westermarck argued the reverse, that the taboos themselves arise naturally as products of a simple inherited
epigenetic response. Subsequent research over the years supports Westermarck's observations and interpretation. But still some psychoanalysts do agree with and support the Freudian concept. One argument used to support their stance is that such taboos would be meaningless if there were no desire to perform the acts in question.
See also
References
- Immelmann, K. Sexual and other long-term aspects of imprinting in birds and other species. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 4, 147–174.
- Kisilevsky, B. S., et al. . Effects of experience on fetal voice recognition. Psychological Science, 14, 220-224.
- Westermarck, E. A. . The history of human marriage, 5th edn. London: Macmillan, 1921.
External links
- Cardoso, SH and Sabbatini, RME. . Brain & Mind Magazine.
- , a researcher into imprinting in zebra finches
- Debra Lieberman, John Tooby and Leda Cosmides. "Does morality have a biological basis? An empirical test of the factors governing moral sentiments relating to incest." Accepted for publication in Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B November 2002. Available online at
- personal website
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