Rats are allowed to wander through a maze for several days with no food reward at the end of it. On the tenth day, a food reward is placed at the end of the maze. Which of the following results would provide evidence for latent learning?
A) The rats take just as long to get to the end of the maze on day 11 as they did on day 1.
B) The rats show a gradual improvement in how quickly they reach the end of the maze from day 1 to day 11.
C) The rats improve very little in how quickly they reach the end of the maze for the first 10 days, but dramatically improve their performance on day 11.
D) Every day, the rats take longer and longer to get to the end of the maze.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This answer describes latent learning, where the rats do not show improvement until there is a reward. The fact that they dramatically improve on day 11 shows that they had learned the maze in some way, even though there was no reward before. A is incorrect because it suggests that the rats did not learn anything during the 10 days without a reward. B is incorrect because it suggests the rats were able to gradually improve during the 10 days without a reward. D is incorrect because it suggests that the rats were simply getting worse at the task over time.

Rats Are Allowed to Wander Through a Maze for Several