Research Paper on:
Animal Imprinting Processes and Results

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
or the mating choices of any creature, what has been imprinted is what serves as one of the strongest determinants of their behavior. Bibliography lists 10 sources. BWimprin.rtf  Imprinting in Animals By: C.B. Rodgers - November 2001 -- for more information on using this  paper properly! Introduction The first thing the student writing about how imprinting takes place in animals should consider is that the biological processes associated with imprinting are a complicated  mechanism through which animals of all species have evolved and survived. Whether it is the homing "device" or ability of salmon, the ability of newborn animals of all species to  recognize their parent, or the mating choices of any creature, what has been imprinted is what serves as one of the strongest determinants of their behavior. Dictionaries define  imprinting as an "indelibly distinguishing effect or influence." As the student working on this project begins to gather information about imprinting, he or she should keep such a definition  in mind and realize that, as it applies to animals, it is an irreversible influence. There have been many circumstances in which the result of human imprinting on an animal  has proven disastrous since the animal identifies more closely with its human than with members of its own species. Ultimately, imprinting serves to prove that there is an undeniable biological  and psychological process in which a specific memory is engraved during a critical period in early life and then leads to certain behaviors in later life. The student should  make note of Klopfers (1996) use of a simplistic metaphor to explain imprinting: "A blob of hot sealing wax can receive an imprint only for a short period before it