Tolman and Pavlovian conditioning

Abstract

Tolman seems convinced that maze learning is outside the scope of pavlovian conditioning. In a paper addressed to this idea, Tolman (1933) surprisingly acknowledges that one observation of maze learning he made (Tolman, 1932) is a form of conditioning but emphasizes more on a further observation (Tolman & Honzik, 1930) which he regards as problematic for a conditioning account. We do not think that Tolman had any good evidence that maze learning is outside the scope of pavlovian conditioning. The goal of this article is to show that Tolman’s results appeal to the pavlovian conditioning of an approach response to stimuli associated with an unconditioned stimulus through: (1) occasion setting for Tolman’s (1932) results and (2) sensory preconditioning for Tolman and Honzik’s (1930) results.