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Lancaster Glossary of Child Development

Innate releasing mechanism (IRM)

Posted byBrian Hopkins May 22, 2019

A term introduced by Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) into ethology to describe a hard-wired device somewhere in the central nervous system that causes a species-specific sign stimulus or releaser to evoke a fixed action pattern. 

See Allometry, Ethology, Experimental method, Fixed action pattern (FAP), Growth, Innate (1)

Posted byBrian HopkinsMay 22, 2019Posted inUncategorizedTags: glossary

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