Cognitive Maps in Rats and Humans Edward Chance Tolman has made many significant discoveries in studies of learning, memory, and motivation. By today's standards he would be considered a behaviorist. “He is best remembered for being a pioneer of cognitive psychology at a time when behaviorists dominated the field. Tolman has made several significant contributions to the field of psychology. At the University of Berkeley he created a cognitive theory of learning, which became his trademark in the field. He thought that learning developed from fragments of knowledge and cognition about the environment and how the organism relates to it” (Kimble et al, 1991). Tolman's experiment asks whether complex internal cognitive activity occurs in an organism, whether these mental processes can be studied without directly observing them. He hypothesized that because humans live in an environment full of obstacles, tools, and paths, he theorizes that humans must use those things in a purposeful way. He used rats in his experimentation because he believed that rats have a similar type of stimulus response system to humans. to explain that organisms are capable of creating useful cognitive maps. His aim was to observe the complexity of those cognitive maps and indicate what these results in rats mean for the behavior of humans. Tolman's version of behaviorism emphasized relationships between stimuli and organism rather than stimulus-response. Instead of a SR (Stimulus-Response) theory, Tolman pioneered the SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) theory. This theory states that a behavior is initiated by things within the organism's environment. According to Tolman, a new stimulus or sign becomes associated with something already miserable...... middle of paper ......ter, even when it does not afford us any immediate gain.Works CitedEdward C. Tolman. (n.d.), from www.a2zpsychology.com: http://www.a2zpsychology.com/great_psychologists/edward_c_tolman.htm.Kimble, G.A., Wertheimer, M., & White, Charlotte L. (Eds.) ( 1991). Portraits of psychology pioneers. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Learning Theories AZ by David C. Leonard page 131,2002.Tolman, E.C. (1922). A new formula for behaviorism. Psychological Review, 29, 44-53. [available at http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Tolman/formula.htm]Tolman, E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and humans. Psychological Review, 55, 189-208. White, S. (n.d.). Watson, Skinner, and Tolman: Their contributions to psychology. Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/history-articles/watson-skinner-tolman-their-contributions-to-psychology-2345545.html