Latent learning

In latent learning, one changes behavior only when there is sufficient motivation later than when they subconsciously retained the information.

One significant example of latent learning in rats subconsciously creating mental maps and using that information to be able to find a biological stimulus such as food faster later on when there is a reward.

Latent Learning is tailoring an animals behavior by giving them time to create a mental map before a stimulus is introduced.

In a classic study by Edward C. Tolman, three groups of rats were placed in mazes and their behavior observed each day for more than two weeks.

[4] Other experiments showed that latent learning can happen in shorter durations of time, e.g. 3–7 days.

[6][clarification needed] In 1949, John Seward conducted studies in which rats were placed in a T-maze with one arm coloured white and the other black.

[9] The children found non-key objects faster if they had previously seen them, indicating they were using latent learning.

[9] In 1982, Wirsig and co-researchers used the taste of sodium chloride to explore which parts of the brain are necessary for latent learning in rats.

At six-months of age, the experimenters performed a target behavior on the first puppet while all the infants watched.

It took these zebra-fish much longer to find a reward in the maze than the control group that had not been exposed to alcohol, even though they showed the same amount of motivation.

Zebra-fish that performed the worst were those who had been exposed to alcohol for a long period, then had it removed before the reward was introduced.

These fish lacked in motivation, motor dysfunction, and seemed to have not latently learned the maze.

[16] A lack of phencyclidine was also found to impair latent learning in a water finding task.