Latent learning is when an organism learns something in its life, but the knowledge is not immediately expressed. It remains dormant, and may not be available to consciousness, until certain circumstances allow or require it to be expressed. In a classical experiment, Tolman and C.H. Honzik (1930), placed three groups of rats in mazes and observed their behaviour each day, for more than two weeks. The rats in group one always found food at the end of the maze, Group two never found food at the end and Group three found no food, but then food was introduced on the eleventh day of observation. Group one always got to the end of the maze, Group two did not learn to get to the end, and Group three acted the same as group two untill food was introduced on day eleven and then acted the same as the first group of rats by the next day.
See also Edit
- Carol Tavris/Carole Wade, Psychology in Perspective (Third Edition). ISBN 0673983145
- Citation "Insight" in Rats, retrieved July 14, 2006
- Tolman, E. C. & Honzik, C. H. "Insight" in Rats, University of California Publications in Psychology, 1930.