Watson, Skinner, and Tolman: Comparing Behaviorist Psychologists
Introduction- Watson, Skinner and Tolman
This paper will present the perspectives and the important psychological work of John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Edward C. Tolman, along with the impacts that these three had on society. This paper will also compare and contrast these three iconic psychologists.
Edward C. Tolman is said by author Bernard J. Baars to have been the "…only major figure" in the emerging field of behaviorism "…who advocated the possibility of mental representation" (Baars, 1986, p. 61). Baars writes that more than any other behaviorist Tolman "anticipated…the cognitive point of view… [and] thought it necessary to postulate events other than stimuli and responses" (61). Tolman has made significant contributions to psychology, including: a) the use of cognitive maps in rats; b) the "latent learning" he pioneered though the use of rats; c) the concept of "intervening variables"; and d) the discovery that rats don't just learn their movements "…for rewards" but rather they also learn when no rewards are given, backing up Tolman's "latent learning theory" (Geary, 2002, pp. 2-3).