Strictly speaking, the term imprint refers to the influence that an event leaves as a consequence, regardless of its nature. In the artistic field, this is how the peculiarities or distinctive characteristics that an artist leaves in his works are called. Psychologically speaking, the imprint is that process in which a person or animal, who goes through a critical or essential stage of behavioral learning, is able to retain the characteristics and consequences of a stimulus. From this theory, others have been generated, in which the tendency to feel more comfortable with the choice of objects or people that are known is explained.
The imprint, in the same way, can be defined as the reproduction of images in hollow or reliefs, in any type of ductile or soft material, such as wax, sealing wax, moistened paper, among others. This type of plastic expression was popular during classical antiquity times, especially in Greece and Egypt, where a large number of techniques were developed to provide creations with great aestheticism. Nowadays, it has moved to other fields, being used to recreate the structure of certain objects and even parts of the anatomy of living beings, making use of molds and various substances that solidify over time.
Thus, it is common for this word to be related to concepts such as footprint, impact or brand, a fact that frames most of the meanings of the term.
In its psychological variant, imprinting is a critical learning period. The example of the duckling is often used, which will follow any entity that is exposed to it for a considerable time, after its birth, regardless of whether it is the mother or not. Furthermore, there is talk of the duckling syndrome, applied to the user-computer relationship, where it is explained how the user will always look for software with similar characteristics to the one used for the first time, that is, they are imprinted by the characteristics of the first computer. This, according to some studies, has led to difficulties in the educational area, especially when it comes to people who are faced with a new environment.
