Cognitive Maps
Edward C. Tolman (1948)
Who is Tolman?
• First of all he is, or at least considers
himself a behaviorist.
• In the article he mentions two schools of
thought regarding behaviorism that are
worth mentioning.
– First the school of animal psychologists that
believe behavior is stimulus and response.
– Second, the field theorists who believe a map is
formed.
Behaviorist Schools
• School number 1
believes that stimulus
and response is the
sole cause of behavior
• They would believe
that the “rat’s” central
nervous system acts
like a switchboard.
Behaviorist Schools
• School number 2,
Tolman’s position
believes that the rats
create a ‘cognitive
map’ of the challenge.
A Narrow or Strip-like Map
A Broad Map
The Difference
• The difference
between the narrow
cognitive map and the
broader cognitive map
will only become
apparent when there is
a new task presented
or a change in the old
task.
Review
1.
2.
3.
Tolman always
considered himself to be
part of the ____ school.
The radical behaviorist
believes that behavior is
altered through ____.
Tolman refers to two
basic schools of
behaviorism. He places
himself in the ____ ____
group.
1. Behaviorist
2. Stimulus / Response
3. Field theorists.
Types of Experiments
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
‘latent learning’
‘vicarious trial and error’ - VTE
‘searching for the stimulus’
‘hypothesis’
‘spatial orientation’
Latent Learning
• Blodgett in 1929 runs rats
through the 6 unit alley
maze.
• 1 Control Group-one trial
per day with food at the
goal box.
• 2 Experimental Groups one trial per day no food
for 3 or 6 days depending
on group.
Latent Learning Replicated
• Tolman and Honzik
repeated the
experiment with 14unit T mazes
• Spence and Lippitt at
University of Iowa did
one of the best
experiments with a
simple Y maze.
Vicarious Trial and Error - VTE
• Muenzinger at University
of Colorado noticed there
is a behavior by rats
presented with a problem.
• Given a choice the rats
will look back and forth in
what appears to be an
attempt to decide.
Searching for the Stimulus
• Bradford Hudson
questions if one trial is
enough.
• Apparatus presents the
stimulus
• An Electric Shock
then occurs creating
the response.
Hypothesis
• I. Krechevsky developed a four-compartment
discrimination box.(above)
• The experimenter determines what will happen at each
choice point.
• Krech found that the rats went through systematic choices
to solve the problem.
Spatial Orientation Experiments
• Carl Lashley who had
done experiments with
rats noticed that some
of his rats took a short
cut.
Spatial Orientation
• The rats most often
will choose 6 as their
second choice if 1 is
blocked.
• This indicates that the
rats have a mental
picture of the direction
and location of the
food.
Review
1. The difference
between strip maps
(narrow) and
comprehensive maps
most often only
presents itself _____.
2. “latent learning”
brings into question
the behaviorist
concepts of ______.
1. when a new task or a
change in task is
presented.
2. contiguity
Review part deux
1. Explain what VTE
means.
2. Now that you have
defined VTE explain
how you would
identify it.
3. Once learning is
strengthened what
happens to VTE?
1. Vicarious trial and
error.
2. The subject (rats) are
see looking back and
forth
3. VTE diminishes
And on it goes…Searching for
the Stimulus
•
Hudson, in his PhD.
Dissertation raised
the question of could
a single trial cause an
avoidance reaction.
1. How did he test this
question?
2. What did he find?
1. He tested the
question by setting
up an apparatus
where the subject
(rats) were shocked
upon the
presentation.
2. It could occur in one
presentation.
Can rats develop a “hypothesis”?
•
Krech tested rats in a
four compartment
discrimination box.
1. What evidence,
anthropomorphically
speaking, did he
observe that
indicated rats form a
hypothesis?
1. In Krech’s
experiments the rats
would try systematic
choices to solve the
problem.
• Is this
algorithmically or
heuristically formed?
Tolman’s Leap
• Tolman is suggesting that there are three
‘dynamism’ that influence behavior.
– Regression - a term used for cases in which an
individual in the face of a difficult problem will behave
in a “childish fashion”
– Fixation - undue persistence in light of earlier maps.
– “displacement of aggression onto out groups” - the
tendency to stay in a particular social group and the
rejection of outside groups.