Pavlov, Lorenz and Harlow
Pavlov's dogs
During the 1890s Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was looking at salivation in dogs in response to being fed, when he noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate whenever he entered the room, even when he was not bringing them food. Pavlov (1902) started from the idea that there are some things that a dog does not need to learn. For example, dogs don’t learn to salivate whenever they see food. This reflex is ‘hard wired’ into the dog. It is an unconditioned response, However, when Pavlov discovered that any object or event which the dogs learnt to associate with food (such as the lab assistant) would trigger the same response, he realized that he had made an important scientific discovery, and he devoted the rest of his career to studying this type of learning. Pavlov knew that somehow, the dogs in his lab had learned to associate food with his lab assistant. This must have been learned, because at one point the dogs did not do it, and there came a point where they started, so their behavior had changed. A change in behavior of this type must be the result of learning.
Lorenz's goslings
Lorenz split a large clutch of greylag goose eggs into 2 groups.
One was allowed to hatch normally and the goslings followed their mother around.
Lorenz had the second group of eggs incubated and then arranged it so that he was the first thing the goslings saw when they hatched. From then on they followed him everywhere.
The goslings had formed a picture (imprint) of the object they were to follow.
When he marked the goslings as to which group of eggs they had hatched from and then let them out together from an upturned box, each gosling went straight to its 'mother figure'. Lorenz' goslings showed no recognition of their real mother.
Harlow's monkeys
Harry Harlow did a number of studies on attachment in monkeys during the 1950's. He stated that monkeys must form their attachments during the first year of life (critical period). His experiments
During the 1890s Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was looking at salivation in dogs in response to being fed, when he noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate whenever he entered the room, even when he was not bringing them food. Pavlov (1902) started from the idea that there are some things that a dog does not need to learn. For example, dogs don’t learn to salivate whenever they see food. This reflex is ‘hard wired’ into the dog. It is an unconditioned response, However, when Pavlov discovered that any object or event which the dogs learnt to associate with food (such as the lab assistant) would trigger the same response, he realized that he had made an important scientific discovery, and he devoted the rest of his career to studying this type of learning. Pavlov knew that somehow, the dogs in his lab had learned to associate food with his lab assistant. This must have been learned, because at one point the dogs did not do it, and there came a point where they started, so their behavior had changed. A change in behavior of this type must be the result of learning.
Lorenz's goslings
Lorenz split a large clutch of greylag goose eggs into 2 groups.
One was allowed to hatch normally and the goslings followed their mother around.
Lorenz had the second group of eggs incubated and then arranged it so that he was the first thing the goslings saw when they hatched. From then on they followed him everywhere.
The goslings had formed a picture (imprint) of the object they were to follow.
When he marked the goslings as to which group of eggs they had hatched from and then let them out together from an upturned box, each gosling went straight to its 'mother figure'. Lorenz' goslings showed no recognition of their real mother.
Harlow's monkeys
Harry Harlow did a number of studies on attachment in monkeys during the 1950's. He stated that monkeys must form their attachments during the first year of life (critical period). His experiments