In contrast to Watson’s strict interpretation of behavior as a result of stimulus-response conditioning, Edward Tolman realized that learning involved more mental processes. Tolman was a firm believer in the science of behaviorism, but he also found himself fascinated by the study of cognitive processes and mental states. He became an expert in Gestalt Psychology, particularly the work of Wolfgang Köhler, who had studied animal behavior under Pavlovian research conditions. Tolman’s interest in cognition led him to publish his own article “The Effect of Thought upon Learning” in Psychological Review in 1936, where he argued that thinking about what one is doing can improve performance.
In his book Rat Learning (1933), psychologist Edward C. Tolman introduced the idea of “latent learning”, in which rats could learn about their environment without being rewarded for their efforts. To do so, he trained rats to navigate through a set of tunnels, each with a distinctive smell. Once the rats had learned the smell, they would run straight through the maze without any hesitation. Next, Tolman placed the rat back into the same maze, but this time with no smell. The rats would then hesitate before running through the tunnel, indicating that they remembered the scent. By repeating this procedure, Tolman was able to show that the rats had formed a mental representation (a mental map) of the maze, enabling them to navigate around it almost instinctively.
