Chapter 5 Cognitive Learning Theories,
Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.1 Edward Chace Tolman
? (1886-1959)
? Born in Newton,
Massachusetts.
? Received his B.S.degree from
the Mass.institutes of
Technology in
electrochemistry in 1911.
? Received his M.A.(1912) and
Ph.D.(1915) degrees at
Harvard Uni.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.1 Edward Chace Tolman
? 1915-1918,taught at Northwestern Uni.,At which
time he was released for,lack of teaching success”,
but more likely it was because of his pacifism
during wartime.
? 1918-1959,worked at Uni,of California,His stay at
Uni,of California was interrupted,when he was
dismissed for refusing to sign a loyalty oath,He led
a fight against the loyalty oath as an infringement
（ 违反，侵害） on academic freedom and was
reinstated when the professors won their case.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2 Main ideas of Tolman’s learning theory
? His learning theory can be looked on as a blend of
Gestalt theory and behaviorism,While still a
graduate at Harvard Uni,he traveled to Germany
and worked for a short time with Koffka,The
influence of Gestalt theory on his own theorizing
had a significant and lasting effect,His favorable
attitude toward Gestalt psy,did not preclude(排除）
a favorable attitude toward behaviorism,He saw
little value in the introspective approach and he felt
psychology had to become completely objective,His
main disagreement with the behaviorists was over
the unit of behavior to be studied.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2 Main ideas of Tolman’s learning theory
? He believed that it was possible to be objective
while studying molar（ 克分子的） behavior
(large,intact,meaningful behavior patterns),
He chose to study molar behavior
systematically,So,Tolman was
methodologically a behaviorist but
metaphysically（ 形而上学） a cognitive theorist,In
other words,he studied behavior in order to
discover cognitive processes.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2 Main ideas of Tolman’s learning theory
? 5.2.1 Molar behavior:
? Molar behavior is purposive.that is,it is always
directed toward some goal.Behavior can not be
divided into smaller units for the purposes of study,
He felt that whole behavior patterns had a meaning
that would be lost if studied from an elementistic
viewpoint,Molar behavior constituted a Gestalt that
was different the individual twitches that made it up,
Purposive behavior patterns can be looked on as
behavioral Gestalt.e.g,
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.1 Molar behavior:
?, A rat running a maze; a cat getting out a
puzzle box; a man driving home to dinner; a
child hiding from a stranger,a woman doing
her washing or gossiping over the telephone,a
pupil marking a mental-test sheet; a
psychologist reciting a list of nonsense syllables;
my friend an I telling one another our thoughts
and feelings ---these are behaviors(qua,作为，
以之为身份 ） behavior).”
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.2 learning outcome:cognitive map.
? Learning is essentially a process of discovering what
leads to what in the environment.The organism,
through exploration,discovers that certain events
lead to certain other events or that one sign leads to
another sign.e.g,when it’s 5:00P.M.(S1),
dinner(S2)will soon follow,
? For Tolman,what is learned is,the lay（ 位置，层面，形
势） of land”; the organism learns what is there,It
learns that if it turns to the left,it will find one thing,
and if turns to the right,it will find another thing,
Gradually it develops a picture of the environment
that can be used to get around in it,This picture is
cognitive map.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.2 learning outcome:cognitive map
? Once the organism has developed a cognitive
map,it can reach a particular goal from any
number of directions,If one commonly used
route is blocked,the animal simply takes an
alternate route,just as the human takes a
detour on the way home from work if the
route usually taken is not available,The
organism will choose the shortest route or the
one requiring the least amount of work,
which was referred to as the principle of least
effort.(exp.p102)
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.3 Learning versus performance:
? We know many things about our environment
but only act on this information when we
need to do so.This knowledge lies dormant
until a need arises,e.g.there may be two
drinking fountains in your building and you
may have passed them both many times
without having paused for a drink,but if you
became thirsty,you would merely walk over
to one of them and take a drink.That’s to say,
you need to translate the knowledge into
behavior until you became thirsty,
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.3 Latent learning:
? Latent learning is learning that is not
translated into performance.In other words,it
is possible for learning to remain dormant for
a considerable length of time before it is
manifested in behavior.(learning without
reinforcement).
? The empirical evidence from Tolman and
Honzik in 1930:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.3 Latent learning:
? By examining the figure,three things became
apparent,(1) There is slight improvement in
performance even in the group never receiving
reinforcement; (2) the reinforced group showed
steady improvement throughout the seventeen days of
the experiment; and (3) when reinforcement was
introduced on the eleventh day to the group not
previously receiving reinforcement,their
performance vastly improved,In fact,the last group
performed even better than the group that was
reinforced throughout the experiment,Tolman took
the results to support his contention that
reinforcement was a performance variable and not a
learning variable,
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.4 Place learning versus response learning:
? Tolman maintained that animal learn where
things are,whereas the S-R theorists
maintained that specific responses are learned,
A typical experiment was done by
Tolman,Ritchie,and Kalish(1946).The
apparatus is as the following:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.4 Place learning versus response learning:
? If a group was learning to turn right,it was fed at F1
if it started at S1,and was fed at F2 if it started at S2,
This was response group,The other group was
always fed at the same place (e.g.F2),If it started at
S1,it had to turn left to be reinforced,if it started at
S2,it had to turn right,This was place learning
group.
? The results showed that the place learners solved the
problem much faster that the response learners,It
appeared that it was more natural for animals to
learn places that specific responses.(Figure)
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.5 Confirmation versus reinforcement
? During the development of a cognitive map,
expectations are utilized by the
learner.Expectations are hunches(预感） about
what leads to what.
? When an expectation is consistently
confirmed,the organism ends up believing
that if it acts in a certain way,a certain result
will follow,or if it sees as certain
sign(stimulus),another sign will follow.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.6 Reinforcement expectancy
? Because the learner acquired cognitive map,he
knows where the goal is,and gets to it by following
the shortest possible route,One learns to expect
certain events to follow other events,The learner
expects that if it goes to certain place,it will find a
certain reinforcer,So,for Tolman,if reinforcers
were changed,behavior would be disrupted because
in reinforcement expectancy a particular reinforcer
becomes a part of what is expected.
? An experiment by Elliott in1928:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.6 Reinforcement expectancy
? Elliott trained one group of rats to run a maze
for bran mush(麦芽糖） and another to run a
maze for sunflower seeds,On the tenth day of
training,the group that had been trained on
bran mush was switched to sunflower
seeds.The results are as follows:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.7 Intervening variables
? An intervening variable is a construct created
by the theorist to aid in explaining the
relationship between an independent variable
and a dependent variable.
? S-R S-O-R
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.3 Evaluation of Tolman’s theory
? Contributions:
? His experiments had been identified as the
predecessor of current studies in comparative
cognition(Olton,1992）,
? His greatest contributions lie less in specific research
findings and more in his role as an antagonist against
the dominance of Hullian (赫尔式的） neobehaviorism.
? Many current theories that emphasize the learning of
expectances and claim that the function of
reinforcement is to provide information rather than
to strengthen behavior owe a great debt to Tolman.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.3 Evaluation of Tolman’s theory
? Criticisms:
? Tolman actually caused regression of psy,back into
the mentalistic orientations of the 19th century rather
than progression of psy,through 20th
century(Malone,1991).(because of too many
variables).
? Have no immediate applicability to practical
problems.
? Animal experiments:Dedicated his book Purposive
Behavior in Animal and Men(1932) to the white rat,
Questions
? 1.Why can Tolman’s theory be considered a
combination of Gestalt psy.and behaviorism?
? 2,Describe a situation that would allow you to
determine whether an animal is utilizing a
cognitive map to solve a problem.Do not use
any of the specific studies discussed in the
chapter.
? 3.Give instances from your own person life that
would either support or refute Tolman’s theory
of learning?
Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.1 Edward Chace Tolman
? (1886-1959)
? Born in Newton,
Massachusetts.
? Received his B.S.degree from
the Mass.institutes of
Technology in
electrochemistry in 1911.
? Received his M.A.(1912) and
Ph.D.(1915) degrees at
Harvard Uni.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.1 Edward Chace Tolman
? 1915-1918,taught at Northwestern Uni.,At which
time he was released for,lack of teaching success”,
but more likely it was because of his pacifism
during wartime.
? 1918-1959,worked at Uni,of California,His stay at
Uni,of California was interrupted,when he was
dismissed for refusing to sign a loyalty oath,He led
a fight against the loyalty oath as an infringement
（ 违反，侵害） on academic freedom and was
reinstated when the professors won their case.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2 Main ideas of Tolman’s learning theory
? His learning theory can be looked on as a blend of
Gestalt theory and behaviorism,While still a
graduate at Harvard Uni,he traveled to Germany
and worked for a short time with Koffka,The
influence of Gestalt theory on his own theorizing
had a significant and lasting effect,His favorable
attitude toward Gestalt psy,did not preclude(排除）
a favorable attitude toward behaviorism,He saw
little value in the introspective approach and he felt
psychology had to become completely objective,His
main disagreement with the behaviorists was over
the unit of behavior to be studied.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2 Main ideas of Tolman’s learning theory
? He believed that it was possible to be objective
while studying molar（ 克分子的） behavior
(large,intact,meaningful behavior patterns),
He chose to study molar behavior
systematically,So,Tolman was
methodologically a behaviorist but
metaphysically（ 形而上学） a cognitive theorist,In
other words,he studied behavior in order to
discover cognitive processes.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2 Main ideas of Tolman’s learning theory
? 5.2.1 Molar behavior:
? Molar behavior is purposive.that is,it is always
directed toward some goal.Behavior can not be
divided into smaller units for the purposes of study,
He felt that whole behavior patterns had a meaning
that would be lost if studied from an elementistic
viewpoint,Molar behavior constituted a Gestalt that
was different the individual twitches that made it up,
Purposive behavior patterns can be looked on as
behavioral Gestalt.e.g,
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.1 Molar behavior:
?, A rat running a maze; a cat getting out a
puzzle box; a man driving home to dinner; a
child hiding from a stranger,a woman doing
her washing or gossiping over the telephone,a
pupil marking a mental-test sheet; a
psychologist reciting a list of nonsense syllables;
my friend an I telling one another our thoughts
and feelings ---these are behaviors(qua,作为，
以之为身份 ） behavior).”
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.2 learning outcome:cognitive map.
? Learning is essentially a process of discovering what
leads to what in the environment.The organism,
through exploration,discovers that certain events
lead to certain other events or that one sign leads to
another sign.e.g,when it’s 5:00P.M.(S1),
dinner(S2)will soon follow,
? For Tolman,what is learned is,the lay（ 位置，层面，形
势） of land”; the organism learns what is there,It
learns that if it turns to the left,it will find one thing,
and if turns to the right,it will find another thing,
Gradually it develops a picture of the environment
that can be used to get around in it,This picture is
cognitive map.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.2 learning outcome:cognitive map
? Once the organism has developed a cognitive
map,it can reach a particular goal from any
number of directions,If one commonly used
route is blocked,the animal simply takes an
alternate route,just as the human takes a
detour on the way home from work if the
route usually taken is not available,The
organism will choose the shortest route or the
one requiring the least amount of work,
which was referred to as the principle of least
effort.(exp.p102)
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.3 Learning versus performance:
? We know many things about our environment
but only act on this information when we
need to do so.This knowledge lies dormant
until a need arises,e.g.there may be two
drinking fountains in your building and you
may have passed them both many times
without having paused for a drink,but if you
became thirsty,you would merely walk over
to one of them and take a drink.That’s to say,
you need to translate the knowledge into
behavior until you became thirsty,
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.3 Latent learning:
? Latent learning is learning that is not
translated into performance.In other words,it
is possible for learning to remain dormant for
a considerable length of time before it is
manifested in behavior.(learning without
reinforcement).
? The empirical evidence from Tolman and
Honzik in 1930:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.3 Latent learning:
? By examining the figure,three things became
apparent,(1) There is slight improvement in
performance even in the group never receiving
reinforcement; (2) the reinforced group showed
steady improvement throughout the seventeen days of
the experiment; and (3) when reinforcement was
introduced on the eleventh day to the group not
previously receiving reinforcement,their
performance vastly improved,In fact,the last group
performed even better than the group that was
reinforced throughout the experiment,Tolman took
the results to support his contention that
reinforcement was a performance variable and not a
learning variable,
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.4 Place learning versus response learning:
? Tolman maintained that animal learn where
things are,whereas the S-R theorists
maintained that specific responses are learned,
A typical experiment was done by
Tolman,Ritchie,and Kalish(1946).The
apparatus is as the following:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.4 Place learning versus response learning:
? If a group was learning to turn right,it was fed at F1
if it started at S1,and was fed at F2 if it started at S2,
This was response group,The other group was
always fed at the same place (e.g.F2),If it started at
S1,it had to turn left to be reinforced,if it started at
S2,it had to turn right,This was place learning
group.
? The results showed that the place learners solved the
problem much faster that the response learners,It
appeared that it was more natural for animals to
learn places that specific responses.(Figure)
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.5 Confirmation versus reinforcement
? During the development of a cognitive map,
expectations are utilized by the
learner.Expectations are hunches(预感） about
what leads to what.
? When an expectation is consistently
confirmed,the organism ends up believing
that if it acts in a certain way,a certain result
will follow,or if it sees as certain
sign(stimulus),another sign will follow.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.6 Reinforcement expectancy
? Because the learner acquired cognitive map,he
knows where the goal is,and gets to it by following
the shortest possible route,One learns to expect
certain events to follow other events,The learner
expects that if it goes to certain place,it will find a
certain reinforcer,So,for Tolman,if reinforcers
were changed,behavior would be disrupted because
in reinforcement expectancy a particular reinforcer
becomes a part of what is expected.
? An experiment by Elliott in1928:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.6 Reinforcement expectancy
? Elliott trained one group of rats to run a maze
for bran mush(麦芽糖） and another to run a
maze for sunflower seeds,On the tenth day of
training,the group that had been trained on
bran mush was switched to sunflower
seeds.The results are as follows:
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.2.7 Intervening variables
? An intervening variable is a construct created
by the theorist to aid in explaining the
relationship between an independent variable
and a dependent variable.
? S-R S-O-R
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.3 Evaluation of Tolman’s theory
? Contributions:
? His experiments had been identified as the
predecessor of current studies in comparative
cognition(Olton,1992）,
? His greatest contributions lie less in specific research
findings and more in his role as an antagonist against
the dominance of Hullian (赫尔式的） neobehaviorism.
? Many current theories that emphasize the learning of
expectances and claim that the function of
reinforcement is to provide information rather than
to strengthen behavior owe a great debt to Tolman.
Chapter 5 Tolman’s Learning Theory
? 5.3 Evaluation of Tolman’s theory
? Criticisms:
? Tolman actually caused regression of psy,back into
the mentalistic orientations of the 19th century rather
than progression of psy,through 20th
century(Malone,1991).(because of too many
variables).
? Have no immediate applicability to practical
problems.
? Animal experiments:Dedicated his book Purposive
Behavior in Animal and Men(1932) to the white rat,
Questions
? 1.Why can Tolman’s theory be considered a
combination of Gestalt psy.and behaviorism?
? 2,Describe a situation that would allow you to
determine whether an animal is utilizing a
cognitive map to solve a problem.Do not use
any of the specific studies discussed in the
chapter.
? 3.Give instances from your own person life that
would either support or refute Tolman’s theory
of learning?
