Manifested Cognitive Maps in Latent Learning

Authors

Lewis Ehme Aukes, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Document Type

Thesis

Date of this Version

7-1950

Citation

Thesis (M.A.)—University of Nebraska—Lincoln, 1950. Department of Psychology.

Comments

Copyright 1950, the author. Used by permission.

Abstract

Thirty animals were divided into three splitter groups of ten and were placed upon a half-hour feeding rhythm, then brought together and studied.The conclusions that were made from this experiment may be stated as follows:

1. Rats run without food at the end of maze, when a reward was presented, and did not show significantly large decreases in time and error scores.

2. The hypothesis that frequency is a factor in the development of a cognitive map in a maze situation seems to receive no support from this investigation.

3. The introduction of reward after a period of non-reward did not appear to alter the difficulty of the blinds as significantly as hypothesized by Tolman-Honzik.

(a)The non-goal-pointing blinds did not appear to become relatively less difficult during the reward period of the non-reward group.Group II increased the percentage of total errors from 56 percent in the non-reward situation to 64 percent in the reward situation.

(b) The goal-pointing blinds decreased slightly in difficulty with the introduction of reward for the non-reward group.Group II decreased the percentage of total errors from 44 percent in the non-reward situation to 37 percent in the reward situation.

(c) A hypothesis that the animals anticipated the next to the last correct turn of the maze was suggested by the increases in the total errors in right-turn blind alleys.Group II increased the percentage of total errors in right-turn blinds from 38 percent in the non-reward situation to 65 perent in the reward situation.

4. In the comparison of the methods of recorded errors which were used by Tolman-Honzik and by Reynolds, there was no significant difference in the final result.All the ratio computed upon the present decrease in error did not give a result significant to the five percent level.

Advisor: William J. Arnold