Final answer:
Rats engage in cognitive learning by developing a cognitive map of their environment, which facilitates latent learning and efficient navigation once a goal, like food, is introduced.
Step-by-step explanation:
Rather than simply learning the path to food through trial and error, rats demonstrate cognitive learning by forming a mental representation or cognitive map of their environment, which they can later use to navigate effectively. Experiments conducted by psychologists such as Edward Tolman and H.C. Blodgett in the 1920s showed that rats could form these cognitive maps even without direct reinforcement, such as a food reward.
When a reward was later introduced, the rats with a pre-existing cognitive map could quickly adapt and find their way through the maze with ease, showing that they had engaged in latent learning. This suggests that the rats were not just making a conditioned sequence of turns but instead possessed a mental layout of the maze that they could use strategically once a goal was made apparent to them.