Edward Tolman

Edward Tolman.

Edward Chace Tolman (born April 14, 1886 in West Newton , Massachusetts , † November 19, 1959 in Berkeley , California ) was an American psychologist. He became known for his work in the field of learning theory and is considered a pioneer from neo-behaviorism to cognitivism .

biography

Edward C. Tolman received his PhD from Harvard University in 1915 .

Until 1918 he held a teaching position at Northwestern University , where he dealt with questions of unimaginative thinking, retroactive inhibition and similar memory phenomena.

From 1918 to 1954 he taught, apart from a few brief interruptions, at the University of California at Berkeley . In 1933 he was on a research visit to Vienna with Charlotte Bühler . During that time, in 1937, he was elected President of the American Psychological Association and the National Academy of Sciences . In 1947 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society and in 1949 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

In his later academic life he was heavily influenced by the ideas of Kurt Lewin and Egon Brunswik .

plant

Tolman is considered a representative of neo-behaviorism. In the book Purposive behavior in animals and men (1932) he transferred behavioral methods to the investigation of "mental" processes in animals and humans. Tolman's learning theory is called cognitive. He led assumed, internal processes as Intervening variables between environmental stimuli ( stimulus ) and the behavior of the organism ( response a). The consequences of behavior (not called “ reinforcement” but “confirmation” by Tolman) do not play a major role in Tolman's concept. Thus he did not succeed in breaking away from the SR (stimulus-response) paradigm of classical behaviorism, as it was then done by Burrhus Frederic Skinner with the emphasis on the three- term contingency : stimulus-response-consequence. But he can be seen as a pioneer of cognitivism .

His work on learning spatial relationships (so-called local learning) in rats in labyrinths gained particular importance . On the basis of these studies, he concluded that the behavior of the animals can not only be explained with a pure stimulus-response pattern, but that internal, cognitive processes are run through when searching for a route. A so-called cognitive map is set up here , in which hypotheses (expectations that the organism has of a certain situation) are either confirmed or rejected. Clark L. Hull , on the other hand, explained these observations in terms of the reduction in need tension achieved with behavior. Tolman's work Cognitive maps in rats and men (1948) brought up the concept of the cognitive map, which is now widely used in psychology.

In his cognitive learning theory, Tolman combined gestalt theoretic and behavioristic fundamentals by making statements about internal cognitive processes, although methodically and objectively investigating them. So- called molar behavior (behavioral complexes ) was an “object” of particular interest to him , since, in his opinion, the extraction of individual behavioral segments falsifies the overall picture and distracts from the essentials.

By definition, behavior for Tolman is goal-directed, purpose-driven, cognitive, and molar. In addition to local learning, another important construct is latent learning, in which a distinction was made between competence and performance for the first time in learning psychology. Here it is described (and underpinned by a labyrinth experiment) that stored information can be available (competence) without having yet been implemented (performance). The appropriate behavior is only resorted to when there is a need or compulsion to do so. Learning is therefore also independent of reinforcement; a motivational component is only required for execution.

Finally, Skinner's article (1950) Are theories of learning necessary? and the development of Radical Behaviorism took an interest in further discussion of Tolman's hypotheses.

His major works include Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men (1932) and Drives toward War (1942).

Publications (selection)

• A new formula for behaviorism. In: Psychological Review. Volume 29, 1922, pp. 44-53. (accessed on October 8, 2017)
• A behavioristic theory of ideas. In: Psychological Review. Volume 33, No. 5, 1926, pp. 352-369, doi: 10.1037 / h0070532 .
• A behaviorist's definition of consciousness. In: Psychological Review. Volume 34, No. 6, 1927, pp. 433-439, doi: 10.1037 / h0072254 .
• with Charles H. Honzik: "Insight" in rats. In: University of California Publications in Psychology. Volume 4, No. 14, 1930, pp. 215-232.
• Purposive behavior in animals and men. The Century Co., New York 1932.
• with Calvin S. Hall and EP Bretnall: A disproof of the law of effect and a substitution of the laws of emphasis, motivation and disruption. In: Journal of Experimental Psychology. Volume 15, No. 6, 1932, pp. 601-614.
• Gestalt and sign gestalt. In: Psychological Review. Volume 40, No. 5, 1933, pp. 391-411, doi: 10.1037 / h0075737 .
• with I. Krechevsky: Means-end-readiness and hypothesis - a contribution to comparative psychology. In: Psychological Review. Volume 40, No. 1, 1933, pp. 60-70, doi: 10.1037 / h0072282 .
• The law of effect: a reply to Dr. Goodenough. In: Journal of Experimental Psychology. Volume 16, 1933, pp. 459-462.
• with Egon Brunswik : The Organism and the Causal Texture of the Environment. (PDF; 1.7 MB, accessed October 8, 2017.) In: Psychological Review. Volume 42, 1935, pp. 43-47.
• Psychology vs. immediate experience. In: Philosophy of Science. Volume 2, No. 3, 1935, pp. 356-380, doi: 10.1086 / 286380 .
• Distance-preferentials. A new apparatus and some results. In: Psychological Bulletin. Volume 33, 1936, p. 727.
• Operational behaviorism and current trends in psychology. In: Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Celebration of the Inauguration of Graduate Studies at the University of Southern California. The University of Southern California, Los Angeles 1936, pp. 89-103.
• The determinants of behavior at a choice point. (PDF; 2.8 MB, accessed October 8, 2017.) In: Psychological Review. Volume 45, No. 1, 1938, pp. 1-41, doi: 10.1037 / h0062733 .
• Drives towards war. D. Appleton Century Co., New York 1942.
• Cognitive maps in rats and men. (Retrieved October 8, 2017.) In: Psychological Review. Volume 55, No. 4, 1948, pp. 189-208, doi: 10.1037 / h0061626
• There is more than one kind of learning. In: Psychological Review. Volume 56, No. 3, 1949, pp. 144-155, doi: 10.1037 / h0055304 .
• Behavior and psychological man: essays in motivation and learning. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1951.
• A cognition motivation model. In: Psychological Review. Volume 59, No. 5, 1952, pp. 389-400, doi: 10.1037 / h0057209 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Studies in spatial learning: II. Place learning versus response learning (together with Ritchie and Kalish in the Journal of Experimental Psychology ), 1946