Edward Chace Tolman

(1886 - 1959) - American psychologist, theorist neobiheviorizma. Developed a system that connects the ideas of behaviorism, Freudianism and geshtaltpsihologtsi. In contrast to 'strict' behaviourism J. Watson argued that the behavior of both animals and humans are not built out of pieces like 'stimulus - reaction', and of integrated acts, to include rye, motive and purpose, a distinction of the properties of objects and their structural relationships, building and testing hypotheses, and t. n. All these internal moments combined T. the concept of 'intervening variables', t. e. factors operating between the immediate incentives (internal and external) and the final reaction. 'Intervening variables' thought T. as physical education, rather than psychological. Research T. made a lot of new things in the interpretation of 'classic' behaviorism learning. Overcoming the mechanistic view of the drill and reinforcement, typical of behaviorism, T. showed that the exercise involves the formation of cognitive structures, and the role of reinforcement can play not only meet the needs, but also confirmation of expectations. The process of learning occurs when reinforcement is absent, for example, when studying animal situation of possible actions ( 'latent exhortation'). Despite notable progress compared with previous theories of foreign education, the concept of T. You can find the methodological flaws: the behavior of animals and humans were identified, . neyromehanizmy ignored as 'unobservable', . focus of action has not received a causal explanation ( 'goal-directed behavior in animals and man', . 1932).,