Chapter 8 Latent Learning Essay

Chapter 8 Learning Essay

Latent Learning is defined as learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.  Interest in latent learning came about largely because people believed that reinforcement was necessary for learning to occur. EC Tolman demonstrated this phenomenon through his experiments with rats and mazes. Tolman objected to the ideas that people and animals are passive learners, but that we are active information processors. In a sense we work towards a goal, belief, etc. Tolman came up with the idea of the cognitive map, which showed that individuals gain cues from the world, which act as stimuli to certain behaviors. The Tolman and Honzik experiment investigated latent learning in rats. Tolman tested the theory using three groups, a control group which was not rewarded, one which was rewarded every time, and the third which was rewarded only half of the time. The mice that had the reward of food at the end of the maze, figured out how to finish the maze faster then without the reward. Latent learning is used by parents when they raise their children, the child is more likely to complete an activity than without incentives.

Imitative behavior is the mimicking of behavior of one individual by another. In Albert Bandura’s experiments, he studied the aggressive behaviors in children. In order to do so he first studied children between the ages of 3 and 6 in day cares ranking their aggressive behavior on a scale of 1 to 5. Bandura’s experiment is referred to as the Bobo doll experiment. HE had three test groups each of 24, one group shown an aggressive model, the other shown a nonaggressive model and the final group was shown no model. The children shown the aggressive behavior model, were more likely to act out and hit the bob doll in the same manner they were shown in the model. This demonstrated the concept of imitative behavior and how humans often imitate or copy others actions.

Classical Conditioning of fear in humans is defined as a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli with fear.  This experimenting began with dogs, and then began being tested on humans.  John Watson spearheaded the experiments by banging a hammer on a metal pole every time his friend Albert touched a white rat, after time, Albert became scared of rats and other furry objects. Classical conditioning is effective now in many different environments, including therapeutic treatments in humans, such as aversion therapy and systematic desensitization. Classical conditioning is a branch of behaviorism. 

Conditioned taste aversions in animals is defined as the previously irrelevant tone stimulus that now triggers salivation.  When dogs were trained that they got food when a bell was rung, every time after that when they hear ringing, they start salivating because they think of food.  Dr. John Garcia created the theory. Taste