Biology / Unit 14 Bio 3623 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Imprinting
Captions available
The idea
Imprinting is a rapid, irreversible learning restricted to a critical early-life period, in which an animal attaches to the first suitable stimulus it encounters.
In practice
Lorenz's goslings followed him after hatching because he was the first moving object they saw during their critical period.
Where people slip
Imprinting occurs only within a narrow critical period — the same stimulus presented later fails to produce it.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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