Question

Edward Tolman explained the results of his study by theorizing that the rats were learning about the maze during every trial but they __________.

A. were agitated because other groups were getting reinforcement.
B. could not remember how to demonstrate it without reinforcement.
C. were not motivated to demonstrate it without reinforcement.
D. seemed to be too lazy to actually work without reinforcement.

Answer 1

B. could not remember how to demonstrate it without reinforcement is the correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

Edward Tolman was an American psychologist and professor at University of California in Berkley. He founded the purposive behaviorism branch of psychology through his studies, which usually involved rats and mazes. Tolman was considered and stimulus-stimulus theorist, so he argued that animals didn't need any biologically significant event to learn. The question refers to an experiment where Tolman and some colleagues put some rats in a maze, and they could find the solution more quickly when there was food involved as a reinforcement. When there was a lack of food, the rats took longer, so letter B is the correct answer.

Answer 2

The correct answer is letter B.

Tolman presents a theory of the learning process supported by the concept of cognitive maps, i. e. stimulus-stimulus relationships, or S-S, formed in the brains of organisms. These S-S relationships would generate expectations in the body, causing it to adopt different and more or less predictable behaviors for different sets of stimuli. These maps would be constructed through the organism's relationship with the environment when it observes the relationship between various stimuli. The internal processes that allow the creation of a mind map between stimuli and others are usually called gestalt signals.