Question

How did Edwrad C. Tolman explain extinction?

Answer 1

Tolman was a behaviorist, more specifically he was a purposive behaviorist. He conducted studies on learning on rats using mazes. He studied molar behaviors - behaviors which were goal directed and purposive. He thought that animals do not need to perform a task, in which responses are not reinforced, in order for extinction to happen, but, it only has to know that reinforcement is no longer present for extinction to happen.

In a latent extinction experiment, first group of rats underwent normal extinction when the responses were not reinforced, and the second group were kept in the empty goal box before the trial started. The results showed that the second group extinguished the behavior faster than the first,. Tolmans explanation was that the rats simply ''come to see" the lack of reinforcement, and so the behavior is extinguised.