 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==  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 13â16 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.t.l. brink. (2008) psychology: a student friendly approach. "unit 12: developmental psychology." pp. 268  filial imprinting is not restricted to non-human 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 father are. the process is recognised as beginning in the womb, when the unborn baby starts to recognize its parents' voices. the filial imprinting of birds was a primary technique used to create the movie winged migration (le peuple migrateur), which contains a great deal of footage of migratory birds in flight. t
Human_development Learning Sexual_attraction