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What Is Latent Learning In Psychology

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Cognitive Maps As An Example Of Latent Learning In Rats

Latent Learning & Cognitive Maps (Intro Psych Tutorial #68)

Tolman coined the term cognitive map, which is an internal representation of external environmental feature or landmark. He thought that individuals acquire large numbers of cues from the environment and could use these to build a mental image of an environment .

In their famous experiments Tolman and Honzik built a maze to investigate latent learning in rats. The study also shows that rats actively process information rather than operating on a stimulus response relationship.

Bandura And Observational Learning

  • Observational learning, also referred to as modeling or social learning, occurs by observing, retaining, and replicating behavior seen in others.
  • Stemming from Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, observational learning allows for learning without any direct change to behavior because of this, it has been used as an argument against strict behaviorism, which argues that behavior must occur for learning to have taken place.
  • Observational learning can teach completely new behaviors or can affect the frequency of previously learned behaviors.
  • According to Bandura’s social learning theory, four conditions, or steps, must be met in order for observational or social learning to occur:
  • The theory of social learning states that behavior such as aggression is learned through observing and imitating others.
  • Research Focus: The Effects Of Violent Video Games On Aggression

    The average North American child watches more than four hours of television every day, and two out of three of the programs they watch contain aggression. It has been estimated that by the age of 12, the average North American child has seen more than 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence. At the same time, children are also exposed to violence in movies, video games, and virtual reality games, as well as in music videos that include violent lyrics and imagery .

    It might not surprise you to hear that these exposures to violence have an effect on aggressive behaviour. The evidence is impressive and clear: the more media violence that people, including children, view, the more aggressive they are likely to be . The relationship between viewing television violence and aggressive behaviour is about as strong as the relationship between smoking and cancer or between studying and academic grades. People who watch more violence become more aggressive than those who watch less violence.

    In one experiment, Bushman and Anderson assessed the effects of viewing violent video games on aggressive thoughts and behaviour. Participants were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 20 minutes. Each participant played one of four violent video games or one of four nonviolent video games .

    Participants then read a story for instance, this one about Todd and were asked to list 20 thoughts, feelings, and actions they would have if they were Todd:

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    Latent Learning And Behavior Analysis

    The claim that behavioral theory was unable to explain latent learning is contradicted by an examination of the history of the experimental research and the resulting theoretical debates. However, the question of the explanatory power of theory relative to latent learning remains open, because there is no published research on latent learning conducted by behavior analysts. This is so in part because Skinner and his like-minded colleagues believed that the maze apparatus was not particularly useful for investigating basic learning processes . Another likely factor is the view that the focus on latent learning had proven fruitless. As noted in his textbook on learning, the language of latent learning seems to have led to a blind alley . Furthermore, this writer has as yet found no published systematic conceptual analyses of latent learning in terms of behavior-analytic principles. What follows is a modest attempt to remedy that situation.

    data showing the average number of seconds to complete the maze each day for rats receiving food at the end of the maze every day of the experiment , rats not receiving food at the end of the maze for the entire experiment , and rats receiving food at the end of the maze beginning on Day 11 and every day thereafter through the end of the experiment .

    According To Psychology How Latent Learning Works

    Explanation of Latent Learning With Examples

    In psychology, latent learning refers to knowledge that becomes clear only when a person is motivated to show it. For example, a child may learn how to complete a math problem in class, but this learning will not be immediately apparent. This kind of learning only manifests itself when the child gets some form of reinforcement due to the completion of the problem.

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    Albert Bandura Social Cognitive Theory Examples

    In other words, it is unintentional in nature and often thought to be difficult or impossible until recently. This concept has been around since at least the late 1800s but was overshadowed by more traditional teaching forms.

    Edward C Tolman spent the last 30 years of his life studying the phenomenon of latent learning before he died in 1959. He found that it is easy to teach rodents how to navigate mazes with food at the end, but they would forget this knowledge over time if not given constant reinforcement.

    When animals first encounter something new, they are very curious and quick to explore their environment until they find what interests them most. They then spend more time focused on that particular object or event because its rewarding for them he calls this latent learning.

    Recently with advancements in neuroscience research and brain maps, we have found a new understanding about how our brains learn bestinformation those who study latent learning can use to improve their instruction methods for all types of learners so they may better educate others across generations.

    Examples Of Latent Learning In Everyday Life

    Observational

    Latent learning can be done in many ways. Lets say you observe your parents time and time again as they tended to their garden. Youre never given this task, but years later find yourself joining a community garden. You pick up your gloves and start weeding and tending to the garden like your parents did.

    This is an example of both observational learning and latent learning. You observed someone elses actions and retained the information even though you were never asked to display your knowledge of working in a garden.

    But latent learning isnt just observational.

    Learning By Doing

    Think about your commute to work. You pass a lot of exits, stores, and street names on your drive to and from work every day. If you needed to one day go to one of those stores that you saw on your commute, you could probably know how to get there without using a map, right?

    Thats also latent learning in action.

    What if you have to take a detour on your commute? Maybe you pull from your knowledge of the town and find another way to get to work. Youre also applying latent learning here. Additional studies on rats show that when the fastest route to food is cut off in a maze, they can easily find an alternative route that still takes them to the food. Even if they have a preferred route, they learn the whole map through latent learning and know how to problem-solve when faced with obstacles.

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    Discovery Of Latent Learning

    The term latent learning was coined by psychologist Edward Tolman during his research with rats, although the first observations of this phenomenon were made earlier by researcher Hugh Blodgett. In experiments that involved having groups of rats run a maze, rats that initially received no reward still learned the course during the non-reward trials.

    Once rewards were introduced, the rats were able to draw upon their “cognitive map” of the course. These observations demonstrated that learning could take place even when an organism does not display it right away.

    Consider, for example, your knowledge of various routes in your hometown. Every day you travel a variety of routes and learn the locations of different businesses in your town.

    However, this learning is latent because you are not using it most of the time. It is only when you need to find a specific location such as the nearest coffee shop or bus stop that you are required to draw on and demonstrate what you have learned.

    Which One Of The Following Is An Example Of Latent Learning

    PSYCH: TOLMAN’S RATS, LATENT LEARNING, & COGNITIVE MAPS

    Over time, when someone drives around a place, they see and record the places they visit most, when one remembers a petrol station that is nearest during his or her time of trouble, the the information learned about the location of the petrol station she recieved represents a form of latent learning.

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    More About Latent Learning: Using Cognitive Maps

    Think about the way you get from your house to the grocery store, or to the movie theater. No one taught you how to get there, and you don’t receive a reward once you arrive, but somehow, you know how to do it. That’s one form of a cognitive map an internal model of the world around you which you build as a result of latent learning. Animals use cognitive maps to find sources of food, water and shelter. We use them to guide us through our daily lives, as well.

    What Is An Example Of Latent Learning

    4.3/5examples of latent learning

    Likewise, what is latent learning in psychology?

    In psychology, latent learning refers to knowledge that only becomes clear when a person has an incentive to display it. For example, a child might learn how to complete a math problem in class, but this learning is not immediately apparent.

    One may also ask, what is an example of learning? The definition of learning is the process or experience of gaining knowledge or skill. An example of learning is a student understanding and remembering what they’ve been taught. YourDictionary definition and usage example.

    Furthermore, what is latent learning in psychology quizlet?

    Latent Learning. Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. Cognitive Map. a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment. for example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

    What is the difference between latent learning and observational learning?

    Not all learning can be explained through the principles of classical and operant conditioning. Latent learning refers to learning that is not reinforced and not demonstrated until there is motivation to do so. Observational learning occurs by viewing the behaviors of others.

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    Tolmans Latent Learning Experiment

    In their famous experiments, Tolman and Honzik built a maze to study how rats could learn in relation to reinforcement. The experiment illustrates the concept of latent learning and shows that rats actively process information rather than working solely on a behaviourist stimulus-response relationship.

    How Do Teachers Apply Latent Learning

    � Latent learning is. Explanation of Latent Learning With ...

    One other effective way how you can apply latent learning in the classroom is by using retrieval practice, which is an effective way to put latent skills to the test. To use this approach in the classroom, ask your students to explore certain information related to the topic of your future class by themselves.

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    Latent Learning In Infants

    The human ability to perform latent learning seems to be a major contributor to why infants can use knowledge they learned while they did not have the skills to use them. For example, infants do not gain the ability to imitate until they are 6 months. In one experiment, one group of infants was exposed to hand puppets A and B simultaneously at the age of three-months. Another control group, the same age, was only presented to with puppet A. All of the infants were then periodically presented with puppet A until six-months of age. At six-months of age, the experimenters performed a target behavior on the first puppet while all the infants watched. Then, all the infants were presented with puppet A and B. The infants that had seen both puppets at 3-months of age imitated the target behavior on puppet B at a significantly higher rate than the control group which had not seen the two puppets paired. This suggests that the pre-exposed infants had formed an association between the puppets without any reinforcement. This exhibits latent learning in infants, showing that infants can learn by observation, even when they do not show any indication that they are learning until they are older.

    Observational Learning: Learning By Watching

    The idea of latent learning suggests that animals, and people, may learn simply by experiencing or watching. Observational learning is learning by observing the behaviour of others. To demonstrate the importance of observational learning in children, Bandura, Ross, and Ross showed children a live image of either a man or a woman interacting with a Bobo doll, a filmed version of the same events, or a cartoon version of the events. As you can see in Video Clip: Bandura Discussing Clips From His Modelling Studies, the Bobo doll is an inflatable balloon with a weight in the bottom that makes it bob back up when you knock it down. In all three conditions, the model violently punched the clown, kicked the doll, sat on it, and hit it with a hammer.

    Take a moment to see how Albert Bandura explains his research into the modelling of aggression in children.

    Watch: Bandura Discussing Clips from His Modelling Studies : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWsxfoJEwQQ& feature=youtu.be

    The researchers first let the children view one of the three types of modelling, and then let them play in a room in which there were some really fun toys. To create some frustration in the children, Bandura let the children play with the fun toys for only a couple of minutes before taking them away. Then Bandura gave the children a chance to play with the Bobo doll.

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    What Is The Main Idea Of Social Learning Theory

    The social learning theory of Bandura emphasizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, an environmental influences.

    Critical Evaluation Of Latent Learning

    Clinical Psychology: Latent Learning | Tolman Theory of learning explained | Learn basic Psychology

    Tolman challenged the behaviourist view of the period that psychology should only be a measure of observable behaviours and that cognitive processes do not take place. Although latent learning was already an established concept, Tolman expanded on the theory and proposed that humans and animals are information processors rather than passive learners working purely on response to stimuli.

    Latent learning added to the toolbox of understanding knowledge acquisition from a cognitive psychological perspective, suggesting that humans may also behave based on beliefs, changing conditions, attitudes, and work towards goals, rather than reacting to stimuli alone. This view on learning has since become a popular view in modern psychology.

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    Latent Learning Applied To Humans

    As we have discussed, in most cases what we have learned is not displayed until we have the incentive and motive to do so.

    You may have seen your partner make coffee every day and not until the day you found yourself having to make coffee on your own.

    Another example could be solving a math problem.

    You may have seen how your teacher did it on the board but it wasnt until the day of the test that you had to use that knowledge to solve it.

    Moreover, you could have learned the route from work, University, or even school simply by watching some of the shops, exits, and buildings.

    One day, you have to take the bus instead of going into the passengers seat of a friends car and you know which route and bus stop you need to get to work/university/school even though you have never done it before.

    A child can see how their parents display proper manners, say thank you, or please but it is not evident until prompted to use them in a similar situation.

    Another example could be a child watching certain dance routines on television from their favorite show but only demonstrates that they know the routine once asked by their mother or carer.

    Moreover, you could have learned how to unclog a drain by watching your dad do so but did not actually do it until you had to unclog your own drain when you had to live on your own.

    Think about similar examples and you will see you will come up with plenty of them because even if we dont recognize it at first, latent learning is very common.

    Latent Learning In The Introductory Textbook

    With some exceptions research has long been incorporated into introductory textbooks along with mention of subsequent theorizing regarding cognitive maps. Where it was included, earlier textbooks occasionally offered a more balanced and critical view of latent learning research. , for example, concluded as follows:

    If we ask what is the moral of the story of latent learning? perhaps the main emphasis should be placed upon the fact that the rapid reorganization of skills under the stress of motivation cannot take place without the preceding skills. The moral does not seem to be that learning takes place without any reinforcement, since there was reinforcement in the sense that some events regularly followed others even in the preliminary runs before food was brought in.

    ended their discussion of latent learning with the conclusion that a crucial test between the two approaches seems doomed to failure by virtue of ambiguities in both models . Lastly, noted that When reinforcement theorists were faced with the results of the latent learning studies, they began to expand the notion of drives in order to encompass the findings of the experiment within the S-R effect position .

    noted that Skinner among other Pioneers in the study of conditioning hoped to explain all learning by the principle of reinforcement and the automatic, unthinking formation of simple associations .

    In responding to the question What is learned in conditioning? began by noting that

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