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Biology  /  Bio 3623  ·  Atom · ~20 seconds

Imprinting

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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.

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Lorenz's goslings followed him after hatching because he was the first moving object they saw during their critical period.

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Imprinting occurs only within a narrow critical period — the same stimulus presented later fails to produce it.