Final answer:
Tolman's Purposive Behaviorism suggests that organisms can learn without reinforcement. Environmental events convey information about our goals by providing feedback and guiding behavior. Tolman's experiments with rats demonstrated the formation of cognitive maps in learning.
Step-by-step explanation:
Tolman's Purposive Behaviorism posits that organisms can learn even if they do not receive immediate reinforcement. Tolman's experiments with rats demonstrated that rats could form cognitive maps of their environment and use this information to solve problems. He believed that environmental events convey information about our goals by providing feedback and guiding our behavior towards achieving those goals. Tolman did not think that reinforcement is necessary for learning to occur. He proposed that learning is a result of forming mental representations or cognitive maps of the environment, and that such learning can occur even in the absence of immediate reinforcement. Reinforcement can still play a role in shaping behavior, but it is not a prerequisite for learning according to Tolman's theory. For example, imagine a rat navigating a maze to find food. As the rat explores the maze, it forms a cognitive map of the maze's layout. Even if the rat does not receive immediate reinforcement in the form of food, it can use its cognitive map to navigate the maze more efficiently in subsequent trials.