One of Tolman's classic research studies involved three groups of rats running mazes for several days. The rats in group 1 received a food reward at the end of the maze every time they ran the maze. The rats in group 2 never received a food reward in the maze. In contrast, the rats in group 3 did not receive a food reward at the end of the maze until the eleventh day of the study. What behavior did the rats in group 2 and group 3 display on day 12?
A) The number of errors the rats in group 2 made remained about the same, but the number of errors the rats in group 3 made decreased sharply, showing that they had learned the layout of the maze without being reinforced.
B) The number of errors the rats in group 2 and group 3 made remained about the same, showing that neither group had learned the layout of the maze.
C) The number of errors by the rats in both groups made sharply decreased, showing the importance of observational learning.
D) The number of errors the rats in group 2 made remained about the same, but the number of errors the rats in group 3 made increased, showing that rewards can interfere with both motivation and performance.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The rats in group 2 never received a food reward, so they did not have a motivation to learn the maze and their number of errors remained about the same. The rats in group 3 did not receive a food reward until the eleventh day, but on the twelfth day, their number of errors sharply decreased, showing that they had learned the layout of the maze without being reinforced for ten days. This supports Tolman's theory of cognitive maps, where the rats had formed a mental representation of the maze's layout.

One of Tolman's Classic Research Studies Involved Three Groups of Rats