Imprinting (ethology)
Imprinting is a term used in ethology to describe a special type of automatic learning that occurs during an animal's development.[1]
Imprinting is when an early sight, sound, or smell during a short period leaves a long-lasting mark called an imprint on the young animal’s nervous system. It often happens after one or a few experiences and is hard to reverse.[1][2][3]
The word imprinting has different meaning in different fields. In genetics it means Genomic imprinting,[4] and in psychology the word is used more broadly to describe learned behaviours (see Imprinting (psychology)).[5]
Imprinting usually occurs early in life, during a sensitive period. That is why textbooks sometimes call it phase-sensitive learning.[6][1] It is learning that happens at a particular age or life stage. The animal fixes on a particular signal (sound, sight, or smell) that creates an imprint of the object it later prefers.[3]
The process involves both instinct and learning. Imprinting makes certain stimuli especially easy to learn about for young animals.[1][6]
The best-known form is filial imprinting, in which newly hatched or newborn animals imprint on a parent. Its function is to keep the young close to their parent(s) during the early learning period. It is most obvious in birds, such as ducks and geese, whose young often follow a parent in a line on land or water.[3]
Imprinting was first reported in domestic chickens by the 19th-century biologist Douglas Spalding.[7][8] It was later developed by the early ethologist Oskar Heinroth, and studied extensively and popularised by his student Konrad Lorenz, and by Niko Tinbergen.[9][10][11]
Lorenz showed how just-hatched geese would imprint on the first suitable moving stimulus they saw, for example, a person’s boots. The geese would then follow it.[10] Later laboratory work measured the timing of imprints. In ducklings the imprinting process can happen during 12–17 hours after hatching, but not after that.[12][13]
In child development, some writers use the word imprinting for early experiences that help babies know their caregivers. Newborn humans prefer their mother’s voice, and this recognition might begin before birth.[14][15]
Filial imprinting of birds was used to make the movie Winged Migration. Hand-reared birds imprinted on handlers and learned to fly alongside ultralight aircraft, allowing close-up filming.[16][17]
See also
- [[Douglas Spalding|]]
- [[Oskar Heinroth|]]
- [[Konrad Lorenz|]]
- Niko Tinbergen
- [[Max Freedom Pollard|]]
- Eckhard H. Hess
- [[Patrick Bateson|]]
- [[Klaus Immelmann|]]
- Gabriel Horn
- [[William Sluckin|]]
- Gilbert Gottlieb
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Bolhuis, Johan J.; Honey, Robert C. (1998). "Imprinting, learning and development: from behaviour to brain and back". Trends in Neurosciences. 21 (7): 306–311. doi:10.1016/S0166-2236(98)01258-2.
- ↑ Pollard, Max Freedom (2025). ElementOP: The Imprinting Process in Humans. Adelaide: Heritage Press. ISBN 9798179013280.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Immelmann, Klaus (1975). "Ecological Significance of Imprinting and Early Learning". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 6: 15–37. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.06.110175.000311.
- ↑ Bartolomei, Marisa S.; Ferguson-Smith, Anne C. (2011). "Mammalian Genomic Imprinting". Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology. 3 (7): a002592. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a002592.
- ↑ "Imprinting". APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bateson, Patrick (1979). "How do sensitive periods arise and what are they for?". Animal Behaviour. 27: 470–486. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(79)90184-2.
- ↑ Spalding, Douglas A. (1873). "Instinct: With original observations on young animals". Macmillan’s Magazine 27: 282–293.
- ↑ "Imprinting". APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
- ↑ Schulze-Hagen, Karl; Birkhead, Timothy R. (2015). "The ethology and life history of birds: the forgotten contributions of Oskar, Magdalena and Katharina Heinroth". Journal of Ornithology. 156: 9–18. doi:10.1007/s10336-014-1091-3.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lorenz, Konrad Z. (1937). "The Companion in the Bird's World". The Auk. 54 (3): 245–273. doi:10.2307/4078077.
- ↑ Tinbergen, Niko (1951). The Study of Instinct. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ↑ Hess, Eckhard H. (1958). ""Imprinting" in Animals". Scientific American. 198: 81–90.
- ↑ Thompson, Richard F. (1964). "Imprinting and the "law of effort"". Animal Behaviour. 12 (1): 65–70. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(64)90003-X.
- ↑ DeCasper, Anthony J.; Fifer, William P. (1980). "Of Human Bonding: Newborns Prefer Their Mothers' Voices". Science. 208 (4448): 1174–1176. doi:10.1126/science.7375928. PMID 7375928.
- ↑ Kisilevsky, Barbara S.; Hains, Sylvia M. J.; Lee, Kang; Xie, Xing; Huang, Hefeng; Ye, Hai Hui; Zhang, Ke; Wang, Zengping (2003). "Effects of Experience on Fetal Voice Recognition". Psychological Science. 14 (3): 220–224. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.02435. PMID 12741744.
- ↑ Winged Migration – Making Of (DVD documentary feature). Sony Pictures Classics. 2002.
{{cite AV media}}:|format=requires|url=(help) - ↑ "'Winged Migration'". MetroActive. 15 May 2003. https://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.15.03/winged-0320.html. Retrieved 14 October 2025.