A history of ‘maze’ psychology
This chapter provides an overview of early studies of spatial cognition, focusing on maze learning. It begins with a description of the first maze studies which were based on the Hampton Court maze. Next, it considers behaviourism and its early proponent, John Watson. Watson and his colleagues argued that animals do not need vision or other senses to solve a maze, but rather rely on a sequence of well-learned motor responses, termed motor kinaesthesis. One of the challenges to this view comes from a series of studies on spatial learning by Edward Tolman and colleagues. Tolman argues that rats, in running through a maze, develop a representation of its entire layout. This he referred to as a cognitive map.
Keywords: cognitive map, behaviourism, maze learning, John Watson, Edward Tolman
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