Dr. Park replicates Tolman's classic maze studies with three groups of rats. Group A receives food at the goal box every trial. Group B never receives food. Group C explores the maze for 10 days with no reward, then on day 11 begins receiving food. Within two trials after reinforcement begins, Group C's error rate drops to match Group A's, far below Group B's.
Group C's sudden performance improvement most directly supports which concept?
- A
Observational learning via vicarious reinforcement
- B
Classical conditioning of an unconditioned response
- C
Operant shaping through successive approximation
- Dcheck_circle
Latent learning, in which a cognitive map formed without reinforcement
Explanation
Tolman argued the rats had built a cognitive map during unrewarded exploration; the learning was latent until reinforcement created the motivation to demonstrate it.