Day 12 of 150 Spatial Difficulty 6/10
Rats build mental maps, not just stimulus-response chains
Quick answer
Rats build mental maps, not just stimulus-response chains. Today's question (Cognitive maps) asks about a finding from Tolman, E. C. in 1948. The correct option is Form mental representations of spatial layouts — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.
Today's question
Tolman's "cognitive map" experiments with rats showed that animals can:
Reveal the answer and explanation
Correct: B — Form mental representations of spatial layouts
Tolman (1948) showed rats taking shortcuts through mazes they had only experienced from one direction — implying internal spatial representations rather than chains of habitual responses. The paper directly challenged strict behaviorism and is a founding text of cognitive psychology. The phrase "cognitive map" survives in modern hippocampus research, where it has been given a neural substrate (place cells, grid cells).
About the source
Tolman, E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, 55(4), 189–208.
Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.
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