One-Trial Latent Learning Followed by Frustration and “Forgetting”

Abstract

Repeating a famous old experiment shows rats do learn the location of food when thirsty, even in a T-maze design which provides reward with water in the opposite arm. Moreover, they learn it on the first trial. They then “forget” it when given more training trials. The experiment argues against the practice of habituation and shows that anticipatory-goal responses cannot explain maze results.