Tolman and Honzik latent learning 1930
Rats given no food at the end of a maze improved little, but once food appeared they quickly ran as well as rats rewarded from the start.
Main paper: Tolman, E. C., & Honzik, C. H. (1930). Introduction and removal of reward, and maze performance in rats. University of California Publications in Psychology, 4, 257–275. https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Tolman/Maps/maps.htm
The question
Does learning happen without reward, even if performance does not show it?
Design: experiment
The researchers set the conditions and compare outcomes between or within groups. Each profile says whether participants were randomly assigned.
Groups of rats differed in when food reward began. This profile does not state how animals were assigned or give counts, because the 1930 report has not been inspected.
Always rewarded
- Food at the goal every day
Result reportedSteady improvement
Never rewarded
- No food at the goal
Result reportedLittle improvement
Reward added later
- No food for the first 10 days
- Food begins
Result reportedErrors drop quickly after food starts
Original diagram drawn for this site from the descriptions in the sources. It is a simplified summary, not a figure from the paper.
Procedure
Rats ran a complex maze day after day. One group always found food in the goal box. A second group found no food. A third group was unrewarded at first and began receiving food after 10 days of unrewarded runs. Performance was measured by the errors the rats made on the way to the goal.
Tolman later discussed this work in his 1948 article on cognitive maps.
Findings
Rats rewarded from the start improved steadily. Rats given no reward improved little. When food began for the delayed-reward group, their errors dropped sharply, and they ran the maze as well as the group rewarded from the start.
Tolman and Honzik read this as evidence that learning had been occurring without being displayed.
Interpretation
Tolman argued that rats acquire knowledge of the maze layout without reward and use it when it becomes worth using. The result became an argument against the idea that reinforcement is required for learning to occur.
Limits on what it shows
- Rats in a maze do not show how humans learn, and the cognitive interpretation was one of several accounts of the result.
- The finding depends on measuring errors and speed, which can change for reasons such as motivation or hunger.
- The details of the design, including group sizes and assignment, are not reported in this profile.
Ethics
Laboratory rats were motivated by food, which implies some food restriction. Current animal research requires welfare review and a justification of restriction, and this study predates those requirements.
Replication and reassessment
Tolman’s 1948 account places the study after Blodgett’s earlier latent-learning work. The distinction between acquiring information and displaying it is central: a reward can change performance without marking the first moment of learning. The original 1930 methods were not inspected.
Think it through. An original practice question written for this site.
Why does the group that received food from day one not tell us whether the other group learned anything during the unrewarded days?
Show a way to reason about it
Learning was only visible once there was a reason to run quickly. The group rewarded from day one shows improvement with reward. The late-reward group's sudden improvement after food begins is what suggests earlier learning that had not been shown.
Nothing you think or select here is recorded.
Textbook connection
Covered in this sectionOpenStax Psychology 2e, 6.3 Operant Conditioning
Section describes the Tolman and Honzik study and the delayed reward after 10 days.
Sources and access scope
Each label says how much of the source was opened while preparing this profile. An unopened source is listed so the claim can be checked, not because it was read.
- Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/6-3-operant-conditioningTextbook contextSelected textbook passages inspected
Textbook context. The section names the Tolman and Honzik latent learning study and describes food being introduced after 10 days.
- Tolman, E. C., & Honzik, C. H. (1930). Introduction and removal of reward, and maze performance in rats. University of California Publications in Psychology, 4, 257–275. https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Tolman/Maps/maps.htmOriginal researchAuthor retrospective inspected
Tolman's later article, which discusses the 1930 work. It is not the 1930 report, and the original methods have not been inspected.