Imprinting (psychology)

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For other uses, see Imprinting (disambiguation).

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 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. Imprinting is hypothesized to have a critical period.

Filial imprinting[edit]

Very small mallard chicks following their mother

The best-known form of imprinting is filial imprinting, in which a young animal acquires several of its behavioral characteristics from its parent. It is most obvious in nidifugous birds, which 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 popularized 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" between 13–16 hours shortly after hatching. For example, the goslings would imprint on Lorenz himself (to be more specific, on his wading boots), and he is often depicted being followed by a gaggle of geese who had imprinted on him. Lorenz also found that the geese could imprint on inanimate objects. In one experiment, they followed a box placed on a model train in circles around the track.[1] Filial imprinting is not restricted to non-human animals that are able to follow their parents, however.


Imprinted geese and cranes flying with an ultralight aircraft

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 (thermal currents) to gain altitude that then permits soaring flight over distance. He used this fact to enable the re-introduction into the wild of threatened species of raptors.

Birds that 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. Then, he taught the fledglings to fly and to hunt. The young birds followed him not only on the ground (as with Lorenz) 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 (5,500 km) with a flock of Siberian cranes, and over Mount 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.

Chicks of domestic chickens prefer to be near large groups of objects that they have imprinted on. This behaviour was used to determine that very young chicks of a few days old have rudimentary counting skills. In a series of experiments, they were made to imprint on plastic balls and could figure out which of two groups of balls hidden behind screens had the most balls.[2]

American coot mothers have the ability to recognize their chicks by imprinting on cues from the first chick that hatches. This allows mothers to distinguish their chicks from parasitic chicks.

Sexual imprinting[edit]


Sexual attraction to humans can develop in non-human mammals or birds as a result of sexual imprinting when reared from young by humans. One example is London Zoo female giant panda Chi Chi; when taken to Moscow Zoo for mating with the male giant panda An An, she refused his attempts to mate with her, but made a full sexual self-presentation to a Russian zookeeper.[4][5]

It commonly occurs in falconry birds reared from hatching by humans; such birds are called "imprints" in falconry. When an imprint must be bred from, the breeder lets the male bird copulate with his head while he is wearing a special hat with pockets on to catch the male bird's semen. Then he courts a suitable imprint female bird (including offering food, if it is part of that species's normal courtship); at "copulation" he puts the flat of one hand on her back to represent the weight of a male bird, and with the other hand uses a pipette, or a hypodermic syringe without a needle, to squirt the semen into her cloaca.[6][better source needed]

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 (as with Konrad Lorenz's geese) would be the cause of shoe fetishism.

Westermarck effect[edit]

Reverse sexual imprinting is also seen in instances where two people who live in domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one become desensitized to later close sexual attraction. This phenomenon, known as the Westermarck effect, was first formally described by Finnish anthropologist Edvard Westermarck in his book The History of Human Marriage (1891). The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the Israeli kibbutz system, and the Chinese Shim-pua marriage customs, as well as in biological-related families.

In the case of the Israeli kibbutzim (collective farms), children were reared somewhat communally in peer groups, based on age, not biological relation. A study of the marriage patterns of these children later in life revealed that out of the nearly 3,000 marriages that occurred across the kibbutz system, only fourteen were between children from the same peer group. Of those fourteen, none had been reared together during the first six years of life. This result provides evidence not only that the Westermarck effect is demonstrable but that it operates during the period from birth to the age of six.[7]

When proximity during this critical period does not occur—for example, where a brother and sister are brought up separately, never meeting one another—they may find one another highly sexually attractive when they meet as adults.[citation needed] This phenomenon is known as genetic sexual attraction. This observation supports the hypothesis that the Westermarck effect evolved because it suppressed inbreeding. This attraction may also be seen with cousin couples.

Westermarck and Freud[edit]

Freud argued that as children, members of the same family naturally lust for one another, making it necessary for societies to create incest taboos,[8] but Westermarck argued the reverse, that the taboos themselves arise naturally as products of innate attitudes.

Steven Pinker wrote on the subject:


—Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works

Baby duck syndrome[edit]

In human–computer interaction, baby duck syndrome denotes the tendency for computer users to "imprint" on the first system they learn, then judge other systems by their similarity to that first system.[9] The result is that "users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems."[10] The issue may present itself relatively early in a computer user's experience, and has been observed to impede education of students in new software systems.[11]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ T.L. Brink. (2008) Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach. "Unit 12: Developmental Psychology." pp. 268 [1]
  2. ^ Rugani, Rosa; Fontanari, Laura; Simoni, Eleonora; Regolin, Lucia; Vallortigara, Giorgio (2009-04-01). "Arithmetic in newborn chicks". Proceedings of the Royal Society B (London: The Royal Society) 276 (1666): 2451–60. doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0044. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 2690459. PMID 19364746. 
  3. ^ Immelmann, Klaus (1972). "Sexual and other long-term aspects of imprinting in birds and other species". Advances in the Study of Behavior. Advances in the Study of Behavior (New York: Academic Press) 4: 147–174. doi:10.1016/S0065-3454(08)60009-1. ISBN 0-12-004504-4. ISSN 0065-3454. 
  4. ^ Nicholls, Henry (2011). The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China's Political Animal. Open Road Media, ISBN 9781453217733
  5. ^ Dobbin, Muriel (April 24, 1975). D.C. zoo encourages giant pandas to observe nation's birth with own. Baltimore Sun
  6. ^
  9. ^ Allen Kent; James G. Williams; Rosalind Kent (21 June 1991). Encyclopedia of Microcomputers: Geographic information system to hypertext. CRC Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8247-2707-9. 
  10. ^ "Baby duck syndrome: Imprinting on your first system makes change a very hard thing", Peter Seebach, IBM DeveloperWorks, 2 March 2005
  11. ^ Tom J. van Weert; Robert K. Munro (28 February 2003). Informatics and the digital society: social, ethical, and cognitive issues. Springer. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-1-4020-7363-2. 

Further reading[edit]

  • Paul, Robert A. (1988). "Psychoanalysis and the Propinquity Theory of Incest Avoidance". Journal of Psychohistory 15 (3): 255–261. 
  • Spain, David H. (1987). "The Westermarck–Freud Incest-Theory Debate: An Evaluation and Reformation". Current Anthropology 28 (5): 623–635, 643–645. doi:10.1086/203603. JSTOR 2743359. 
  • Westermarck, Edvard A. (1921). The History of Human Marriage (5th ed.). London: Macmillan. 

External links[edit]