Latent learning

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Latent learning" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Latent learning is the subconscious retention of information without reinforcement or motivation. In latent learning, one changes behavior only when there is sufficient motivation later than when they subconsciously retained the information.^[1]

Latent learning is when the observation of something, rather than experiencing something directly, can affect later behavior. Observational learning can be many things. A human observes a behavior, and later repeats that behavior at another time (not direct imitation) even though no one is rewarding them to do that behavior.

In the social learning theory, humans observe others receiving rewards or punishments, which invokes feelings in the observer and motivates them to change their behavior.

In latent learning particularly, there is no observation of a reward or punishment. Latent learning is simply animals observing their surroundings with no particular motivation to learn the geography of it; however, at a later date, they are able to exploit this knowledge when there is motivation - such as the biological need to find food or escape trouble.

The lack of reinforcement, associations, or motivation with a stimulus is what differentiates this type of learning from the other learning theories such as operant conditioning or classical conditioning.^[2]