Welcome to the Fresno City College Psychology Department's video tutorial. This video covers a concept in classical conditioning called higher order or second order conditioning. This is an advanced topic in classical conditioning. Therefore, this video assumes that you are already familiar with all the basics.
Let's start with a reminder of the definition of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning occurs when a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response through its associations with the stimulus that naturally brings about that response. So what's higher order conditioning?
Higher order conditioning occurs when a conditioned stimulus is frequently paired with a neutral stimulus, thereby further removing the organism from the originally neutral stimulus. I am using the term organism to refer to any living thing with a nervous system, dog, cat, human, etc. The difference between this definition and the definition of classical conditioning is that there's no unconditioned stimulus here. The conditioned stimulus acts as if it were an unconditioned stimulus.
Let's look at some examples to help you grasp this concept. Higher order conditioning starts with regular classical conditioning. Let's revisit Pavlov's dog to help you understand this.
Remember, the sound of the metronome was the previously neutral stimulus that became a conditioned stimulus after the metronome. after frequent pairings with the food. And of course, when we say pairing, we mean that the metronome sound came before the food on a regular basis.
Over time, the metronome sound all by itself caused the difference between the sound of the food and the sound of the food itself. So, the metronome sound is a sound that is used to describe the food. dog to salivate. Pavlov wondered what would happen if he now regularly preceded the metronome sound with a different neutral stimulus, such as the presentation of a black square.
The black square is labeled in this figure as the second order stimulus. This is a second neutral stimulus that is twice removed from the unconditioned stimulus. Over time, the second order stimulus will come to elicit the conditioned response all by itself. This is higher order conditioning. It is sometimes referred to as second order conditioning and regular classical conditioning is sometimes referred to as first order conditioning.
Let's take a look at a couple more examples. Let's say that there's a certain popular song that a new couple dances to. The song starts to play, they go out on the dance floor together and experience those pleasant feelings that couples get as they hold each other close and sway to the music.
Over time, the song all by itself will elicit those pleasant feelings, even in the absence of the partner. Now imagine that the partner frequently hears the song on the car radio. Now the car and the song are paired together, such that over time, the car all by itself can elicit pleasant feelings.
The car is twice removed from the unconditioned stimulus, dancing close with the partner. I did not label all the parts of the classical conditioning in the previous slide. Let's see if you can answer a multiple choice question regarding the parts. In the above example, what's the unconditioned stimulus? Is it...
The certain song, the dancing close with the partner, the pleasant feelings in response to the song, or the pleasant feelings in response to dancing close with the partner. Pause the video now if you need some time to think about your answer. The unconditioned stimulus is the dancing close with the partner. Let's go over all the parts on the next slide just to be sure that you have it. In the original classical conditioning, or first order conditioning, the song starts out as the neutral stimulus that is paired with the dancing close with the partner.
The close dancing is the unconditioned stimulus that causes the unconditioned dance. response of pleasant feelings. Remember, those are unconditioned because the individuals in the couple did not need to learn to feel good in the arms of their partner. Over time, the song goes from neutral to conditioned.
The conditioned stimulus, the song, elicits the conditioned response, pleasant feelings. In the second order conditioning, the song acts as if it were an unconditioned stimulus. You see that it is in the position that the U.S. typically occupies in our diagram.
The car starts out neutral and over time becomes a conditioned stimulus for pleasant feelings. You might be wondering why I am insisting on using the term higher order conditioning rather than second order conditioning. Let's look at an even more complex example to help you understand. As I said before, all higher order conditioning starts with regular classical conditioning.
It is not uncommon for chemotherapy patients to experience some classically conditioned nausea because there are lots of stimuli in the chemotherapy. environment that can regularly precede the treatment. In my example, I have selected the presence of a familiar nurse. In the first-order conditioning, the nurse starts out as neutral, that is, his presence does not cause any nausea or pain. in the patient.
The chemotherapy acts as an unconditioned stimulus that causes the unconditioned response of nausea. Over time, the sight of the nurse, because of his association with delivering the chemotherapy, causes the patient to become nauseated. Sometimes chemotherapy patients will report feeling a bit nauseated if they run into a familiar nurse outside the hospital, like in the parking lot or even at the grocery store.
Before seeing the nurse, the patient will sit and wait in the hospital waiting room. This sets the stage of second-order conditioning. The waiting area starts out neutral, but soon gets paired with the nurse, who is now eliciting nausea.
Now the patient is feeling sick, just sitting in the waiting area. Here's where things get complicated. Before sitting in the waiting area, the patient walks down the hospital hallway. Over time, the hospital hallway may begin to elicit nausea because of its association with the waiting area. area that is associated with the nurse who is associated with the chemotherapy.
Eventually, just the hospital parking lot may elicit nausea. You see now why it is called higher-order conditioning. The new conditioned stimulus can be far removed from the first-order unconditioned stimulus. Before concluding this video tutorial, let's go through a multiple choice question. For chemotherapy patients, a conditioned response might be the hospital waiting area, the chemotherapy drugs, the nausea elicited by the chemotherapy drugs, or the nausea elicited by just driving by the hospital.
Pause the video now to give yourself some time to answer the question. A conditioned response might be nausea elicited by just driving by the hospital. The hospital waiting area would be a conditioned or learned stimulus.
The chemotherapy drugs would be an unconditioned stimulus because they naturally cause nausea. The nausea elicited by the chemo drugs would be an unconditioned or natural response. This concludes our video tutorial on higher order conditioning. Thank you!