Tolman, Edward C

Tolman, Edward C(hace)

(born April 14, 1886, West Newton, Mass., U.S.—died Nov. 19, 1959, Berkeley, Calif.) U.S. psychologist. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley (1918–54). Although he was a behaviourist, he considered classical behaviourism too reductive, and he therefore emphasized behavioral wholes and unmeasurable “intervening variables” over a strict focus on isolated reflexes. He also advanced the concept of “latent learning” (implicit, indirect learning). His major work was Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men (1932).