Latent Learning in Psychology

Latent Learning in Psychology

What is Latent Learning in psychology? Discuss some example of Latent Learning? What is the history of Latent Learning?

There are various types of heat, it depends on how the energy of heat is transferred to certain objects, and the flow of energy is distributed due the transference and the transformation of heat energy to different forms of energy. Heat energy is a very complex type of energy. It is very unstable form of energy as well. The identity of the heat energy is also a very important, as the state of the heat; energy may not be registered or noticed. Thus, the factor of evaluation of the form and the identity of the heat energy needs to be done to denote the nature and the existence and presence of the and nature of heat.

The nature of heat energy is one of the most important factors that needs to be done and analyzed as well. 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.

Latent learning is a form of learning that is not immediately expressed in an overt response. It occurs without any obvious reinforcement of the behavior or associations that are learned. Latent learning is not readily apparent to the researcher because it is not shown behaviorally until there is sufficient motivation. This type of learning broke the constraints of behaviorism, which stated that processes must be directly observable and that learning was the direct consequence of conditioning to stimuli.

Latent learning also occurs in humans. Children may learn by watching the actions of their parents but only demonstrate it at a later date, when the learned material is needed. For example, suppose that Ravi’s dad drives him to school every day. In this way, Ravi learns the route from his house to his school, but he’s never driven there himself, so he has not had a chance to demonstrate that he’s learned the way. One morning Ravi’s dad has to leave early for a meeting, so he can’t drive Ravi to school. Instead, Ravi follows the same route on his bike that his dad would have taken in the car. This demonstrates latent learning. Ravi had learned the route to school, but had no need to demonstrate this knowledge earlier.