Tolman, Ritchie & Kalish (1964b)

Question 1

How did Tolman et al. study sought to determine how animals learned?

Answer 1

• They sought to understand how animals learned by conducting experiments with rats in mazes
• The rats were split into 2 groups the response learning group which were required to always turn right and the place learning group which were required to always go in the same place
• They wanted to see which of the groups would make the least amount of errors

Question 2

What do Tolman’s findings add to the then understanding of animal learning?

Answer 2

His findings show that place learning is simpler and more rapid than response learning which goes against the stimulus-response view of learning (Thorndike’s view)

Question 3

Introduction?

Answer 3

• purpose of the study = to provide direct evidence of place or response learning
• hypothesis = rats would learn faster in the place learning condition than the response learning condition

Question 4

Methods?

Answer 4

• 2 groups of 8 male rats were used
• Between subjects designed used
• Place learning and response learning were given the same preliminary training in T mazes
• Response learning group were required to learn to always turn right due to the other choices being blocked
• Rats in the place learning group were required to learn to go always to the same place in the room no matter where they started
• Rats were trained for 6 trials per day for up to 12 days
• Training ended if they made 10 consecutive correct responses

Question 5

Results?

Answer 5

• place learning group learned faster than the response learning group
• only 3/8 rats in the response learning group reached the criteria of 10 successive errorless trials
• all the rats in the place learning group reached the criterion within 8 trials or less
• no difference between the 2 groups in terms of the hesitation they exhibited

Question 6

Discussion?

Answer 6

• concluded that rats simply learn the place
• disposition to orient towards the goal is simpler and more primitive than the disposition to make right turns
• in situations where there are marked extra-maze cues, place-learning is simpler than response-learning