The first day of a new job, you may find yourself walking around, gathering information about the "lay of the land." this behavior demonstrates that sometimes learning that is not necessarily reinforced occurs and may show up later as new behaviors. this illustrates learning.

In e. c. tolman's experiment, some rats were trained to run through mazes for standard food goals, while other rats were allowed to explore the mazes for 10 days without food goals or other rewards. later, when food rewards were placed in a box at the far end of the maze, the previously unrewarded rats reached the food box as quickly as the rewarded rats after only one or two trials. this experiment demonstrated that the rats had the ability to form of their surroundings.