Cognitive Maps

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Cognitive Maps

• Edward C. Tolman (1948)

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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.

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Behaviorist Schools

• School number 1 believes that stimulus and
  response is the sole cause of behavior
• They would believe that the rats central
  nervous system acts like a switchboard.

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Behaviorist Schools

• School number 2, Tolmans position believes that
  the rats create a cognitive map of the
  challenge.

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A Narrow or Strip-like Map
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A Broad Map
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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.

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Review

1. Tolman always considered himself to be part of
   the ____ school.
2. The radical behaviorist believes that behavior is
   altered through ____.
3. Tolman refers to two basic schools of
   behaviorism. He places himself in the ____ ____
   group.

1. Behaviorist
2. Stimulus / Response
3. Field theorists.

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Types of Experiments

1. latent learning
2. vicarious trial and error - VTE
3. searching for the stimulus
4. hypothesis
5. spatial orientation

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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.

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Latent Learning Replicated

• Tolman and Honzik repeated the experiment with
  14-unit T mazes
• Spence and Lippitt at University of Iowa did one
  of the best experiments with a simple Y maze.

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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.

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Searching for the Stimulus

• Bradford Hudson questions if one trial is enough.
• Apparatus presents the stimulus
• An Electric Shock then occurs creating the
  response.

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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.

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Spatial Orientation Experiments

• Carl Lashley who had done experiments with rats
  noticed that some of his rats took a short cut.

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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.

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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

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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?

• Vicarious trial and error.
• The subject (rats) are see looking back and forth
• VTE diminishes

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And on it goesSearching for the Stimulus

• Hudson, in his PhD. Dissertation raised the
  question of could a single trial cause an
  avoidance reaction.
• How did he test this question?
• 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.

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Can rats develop a hypothesis?

• Krech tested rats in a four compartment
  discrimination box.
• What evidence, anthropomorphically speaking, did
  he observe that indicated rats form a hypothesis?

• In Krechs experiments the rats would try
  systematic choices to solve the problem.
• Is this algorithmically or heuristically formed?

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Tolmans 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.