a term coined by the American psychologist Edward Tolman (see Edward Chace Tolman (1886-1959) in Chapter 5 Famous Scientists, Their Scientific Schools and Organizations in Psychological Science). This learning occurs by forming an association between indifferent stimuli or situations in the absence of explicit reinforcement. Interest in latent learning arose because it contradicted the widespread belief that learning requires a stimulus (reinforcement). Tolman suggested that latent learning occurs in the form of the appearance of a certain cognitive map in the brain.