Tolman and Honzik (1930) conducted experiments with rats and mazes to examine the role that reinforcement plays in the way that rats learn their way through complex mazes. These experiments eventually led to the theory of latent learning. This model identifies that when exposing an organism to a problem situation, with little or no reward, there is still learning.
The choice that shows that the stimulus and result were a meditational process with the rats in observation. The rats' brain was processing information actively, using their cognitive map.
The implication for the researchers is that in 1948, Tolman challenged the behaviorist point of view by stateing that animals, as well as people, were not passive learners as the behaviorist assumed.
Tolman believed that people acted by beliefs and attitudes, instead of only reacting to some kind of stimulus.
