The concept of Latent Learning was advocated by:

Latent learning is a type of learning which is not apparent in the learner's behavior at the time of learning, but which manifests later when a suitable motivation and circumstances appear. This shows that learning can occur without any reinforcement of a behavior.

Important Points

• The term latent learning was coined by psychologist Edward Tolman during his research with rats, although the first observations of this phenomenon were made earlier by researcher Hugh Blodgett.
• The idea of latent learning was not original to Tolman, but he developed it further. Edward Tolman argued that humans engage in this type of learning everyday as we drive or walk the same route daily and learn the locations of various buildings and objects.
• Tolman conducted experiments with rats and mazes to examine the role that reinforcement plays in the way that rats learn their way through complex mazes.