Rats are allowed to wander through a maze for several days with no food reward at the end of it. On the tenth day, a food reward is placed at the end of the maze. Which of the following results would provide evidence for latent learning?
A)The rats take just as long to get to the end of the maze on day 11 as they did on day 1.
B)The rats show a gradual improvement in how quickly they reach the end of the maze from day 1 to day 11.
C)The rats improve very little in how quickly they reach the end of the maze for the first ten days, but dramatically improve their performance on day 11.
D)Every day, the rats take longer and longer to get to the end of the maze.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario describes the phenomenon of latent learning, where the rats do not show any improvement in their behavior during days 1-10, but suddenly perform much better on day 11 when a food reward is introduced. Option A is not indicative of latent learning as there is no improvement in behavior before or after the food reward. Option B describes normal learning where performance improves gradually over time. Option D describes the opposite of learning, where performance deteriorates over time.

Rats Are Allowed to Wander Through a Maze for Several