Explain how Tolman used intervening variables in a way that was consistent with logical positivism.
Tolman was not fully argued in using mentalistic concepts by describing the various forms of behavior. Infact, he believed that some kind of cognitive processes also exist that are beneficial for determining different types of behavior patterns. Thus, he described different solutions to understand the cognitive events in a modified manner that are known as intervening variables.
Intervening variables are refers to those type of variables that are intertwined between environmental behavior and events. Following logical positivism, Tolman described the intervening variables to explained the observable behavior that operationally defined by their theoretical knowledge. Its final goal of approach was to combine cognition and purpose as major theoretical pillars that are used to predict, describe and explain the behavior.
By introducing the concept of intervening variables, Tolman identified abstractual scientific theory into psychology. It also leads to unobservable and internal events that cause behavior by initiating the intervening variables that leads to cognitive thinking than a radical behaviorist by modulating logical positivism in a desired manner of viewpoint.