Filial responses are first considered by reference to the initial stimulus situations. Findings on variability in responsiveness of chicks are reported and discussed. Facilitated responsiveness subsequent to visual stimulation is reported. The concept of critical period is examined in the light of other workers’ and our own findings; it is concluded that imprinting ends as a result of its own action rather than through the effects of fear. Following responses are further considered by reference to the influences of early experiences and the act of following upon the occurrence and strength of subsequent responses. The degree of attachment to a moving object tends to be proportional to the amount of experience. Individual chicks were allowed to spend several hours following a box in a runway and their ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar moving objects and static environments was studied. Strong evidence for imprintability to environment has been found. Imprinting phenomena are discussed in terms of perceptual learning.

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The concept of maternal 'bonding', i.e. rapid mother-to-neonate attachment, appears frequently in psychiatric, paediatric and social work discussions of childhood psychopathology and child abuse. 'Bonding' is used as a diagnostic concept, and one which has to bear the weight of important explanatory, descriptive and predictive statements. In turn, it is related aetiologically to post-partum contact and separations of mother and infant. The authors present a critical review of the concept, exploring its empirical basis, and the implications (logical and illogical) that flow from its application in practice. They conclude that the usage of the term 'bonding' is often misleading, because of a tendency to reify and simplify attachment phenomena; in addition, there are no indications from animal investigations and no evidence from human studies which directly support the notion of a 'sensitive period' in the formation of mother-to-infant attachments. They also describe the negative and pessimistic implications of using this concept in social work and clinical practice. Alternative ways of conceptualising these early parent-child events are suggested.

After a brief account of the importance, and neglect, of the psychological study of names, the role of familiarity in liking for names is investigated. Some empirical research on first names and surnames is set in the context of two opposing theories in experimental aesthetics: the “mere exposure” and “inverted-U” hypotheses. A preference-feedback hypothesis that enables us to resolve some apparently contradictory results from the experiments, and to account for the existence of cyclical vogues in first names and other cultural items, is proposed.

A sample of 40 male and 40 female subjects rated either their familiarity with or their liking for 60 one‐syllable and two‐syllable surnames selected randomly from a local telephone directory. Linear and curvilinear regression analyses strongly corroborated the hypothesis of an inverted‐U familiarity‐favourability relationship. These results, together with those of earlier investigations using other classes of stimuli, are discussed in the light of a preference‐feedback hypothesis according to which the naturally occurring frequency of exposure of certain stimuli is largely determined by the degree to which they are preferred. This hypothesis accounts for the monotonic familiarity‐favourability relationship found for Christian names and the non‐monotonic relationship found for letters of the alphabet, one‐syllable words, and surnames, and for the cyclical vogues to which Christian names and other cultural objects appear to be subject.