In a classic experiment, Tolman exposed a group of rats to a maze for 11 days before he introduced a food reward. The rats outperformed rats that had been given daily food rewards. This demonstrates __________

A) latent learning.
B) classical conditioning.
C) operant conditioning.
D) observational learning.

The experiment by Tolman demonstrated latent learning, which is a form of learning that occurs without any obvious reinforcement or reward. The rats had learned and retained a cognitive map of the maze even before there was any reinforcement in the form of a food reward. This contradicted the behaviorist perspective that learning only occurs through reinforcement.