Which psychologist is renowned for pioneering work on imprinting?

• A. B.F. Skinner
• B. Konrad Lorenz
• C. Jean Piaget
• D. Sigmund Freud

Answer: (B)

Imprinting is a rapid, early learning process that produces a strong, long-lasting attachment to the first moving object encountered, usually during a brief sensitive period after birth or hatching. Konrad Lorenz famously demonstrated this with geese, showing that the hatchlings would instinctively follow the first object they see, typically the mother. This work revealed a critical window for social attachment and helped establish the field of ethology, linking biological instincts with learning. The other figures studied different areas: Skinner focused on how reinforcement shapes behavior, Piaget mapped stages of a child’s cognitive development, and Freud proposed psychosexual theories rooted in the unconscious. Lorenz is the pioneer most closely associated with imprinting.