What is Sexual Imprinting?
Before beginning to understand sexual printing, one must understand basic imprinting in terms of psychology. Imprinting is used to describe any kind of learning that occurs at a particular age or stage of development. (Irwin, 1999) It is a phase-sensitive type of learning, and involves an organism recognizing the characteristics of certain stimuli that are "imprinted" onto the subject. (Irwin, 1999) Imprinting only helps the survival of a species, as it can be demonstrated in simply recognizing ones parents' or even potential sexual partners.
Sexual imprinting is a subtype of general imprinting in psychology. It is defined as the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate. (Irwin, 1999) A perfect example of this is demonstrated by male zebra finches. Males of this species are known to prefer mates with characteristics of the female bird that rears them. Sexual imprinting has also been exhibited by many different species of birds, as well as other mammals, including humans.
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The diagram to the right gives a good visual interpretation of sexual imprinting. In this specific example, the ornamentation exhibited by certain parents is a red feather on the individuals head. Depending on whether the female offspring has parents with or without ornamentation, that will determine her sexual preference when she becomes old enough to mate. |
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