This chapter centers on the work of Hulls arch critic, Edward Tolman. He was convinced that the Pavlov-inspired approach to the study of learning was far too narrow. Using a variety of mazes, Tolman and his students obtained evidence that their rats could anticipate events - rather just make conditioned responses - and could learn about the spatial properties of environments they were placed in. In the late 1960s various researchers - most with little connection to Tolman - discovered the important role of the context in which an animal was conditioned. In the 1970s experiments by neuroscientists on the function of the hippocampus led to a revival of interest in spatial learning and renewed appreciation of Tolmans suggestion that animals form representations - maps - of their environment.

Behavioral psychology was immediately preceded by the reflexology of Russian physiology and the associationism of Thorndike. Physiological reflexology received a sound foundation with the works of Sechenov and Bekhterev, but it was Pavlov who proposed a comprehensive theory of conditioning. Watson’s behavioral formulation defined stimulus and response elements as the substitute to rid psychology of residual mentalistic constructs. Watson’s contemporaries, Holt, Weiss, Hunter, and Lashley, soon restored to behaviorism critical psychological activities. The logical positivist movement expressed an operational spirit and insured the initial success of the behaviorist model. Behavioral psychology expanded beyond the original formulations of Pavlov and Watson. Contemporary reflexology in Russia and in nearby countries expanded to include a wide range of psychological and physiological problems, led by such eminent scientists as Vygotsky, Luria, Konorski, Asratyan, and Beritashvili. In the United States, behaviorism moved through several intellectual stages, through the contributions of Guthrie, Tolman, Hull, and Skinner. A major application of behaviorism was the behavior modification model in clinical settings. Contemporary behaviorism remains a dominant but diffused force in psychology.