- This article is about the psychological term. For other meanings, see imprinting.
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe 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. It typically involves an animal or person learning 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 (more specifically, on his wading boots), 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 (in some cases) father are.
The filial imprinting of birds was a primary technique used to create the movie Le Peuple Migrateur, 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.
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 objects other than people is the most popular theory of the development of sexual fetishism. For example, according to this theory, imprinting on shoes or boots (as with Lorenz' geese) 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 Edward 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.
But 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 did result in a generation that was not interested in the opposite sex within their class, and the program was dropped. It's 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 vs. 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 sdgnsertargued the reverse, that incest taboos themselves arise naturally as products of response mediated by a relatively simple inherited epigenetic rule, namely the Westermarck effect. Subsequent research over the years supports Westermarck's observations and interpretation.
See also
References - Westermarck, E. A. 1921 The history of human marriage, 5th edn. London: Macmillan.
External links - Nancy T. Burley (http://ecoevo.bio.uci.edu/Faculty/Burley/Burley.html), 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 Citeseer (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/593584.html)
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