In a classic experiment, two groups of rats explored a maze with the first group being rewarded with food at the end of the maze, while the second group wandered the maze but were unrewarded and showed no signs of learning. But later, when the "uneducated" rats were given food, they ran the maze as quickly as the rewarded group. The unrewarded animals had nevertheless learned their way around the maze, which demonstrated a type of learning referred to as:

Latent learning is a learning that is not expressed in an outer response. This learning has happened without any reinforcement of the behavior. Latent learning is not possible for psychologist because it is not shown behaviorally until it is behavioral motivated. It breaks the compulsion that the stated process is directly observable and learning has direct consequences over the conditioning to stimuli. Latent learning occurs in both humans and animals as well such as children learn the behavior from their parents by imitating but show it later. Latent learning is also described as not reinforced and not demonstrated until motivation is to do so. According to Tolman the rat makes a cognitive map of the maze but did not demonstrate this knowledge until the rat received a motivation or reinforcement.