Who proposed cognitive maps after rat maze experiments?

Who proposed cognitive maps after rat maze experiments? Edward Tolman did. His work showed that rats could learn the layout of a maze, not merely memorize a fixed sequence of turns.

Tolman’s influential 1946 studies with C. H. Ritchie and D. A. Kalish found that rats explored mazes and later used their knowledge flexibly when food was introduced. In his 1948 paper “Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men,” he argued that animals form internal representations of spatial relationships. This challenged strict stimulus-response explanations of learning.

The idea helped establish a bridge between behaviorism and modern cognitive psychology. Tolman also distinguished place learning—knowing where a goal is—from response learning, such as always turning right. A common mix-up is crediting the concept to John Watson or B. F. Skinner, who are more closely associated with behaviorist traditions. Tolman himself described his approach as purposive behaviorism, emphasizing goals and mental organization while still studying observable behavior. Later research connected spatial representation to the hippocampus, especially through the work of John O’Keefe and others.