Higher-Order Conditioning

Let’s recap what we have learned thus far. You came across Burger King and instantly fell in love with their Whopper. You liked it so much that the Burger King logo made you salivate due to the anticipation that a Whopper would come. The Whopper, the Unconditioned Stimulus in this illustration, would elicit an Unconditioned Response in the form of salivation. After repeated associations between the Burger King logo, initially a Neutral Stimulus, and the Whopper, it became a Conditioned Stimulus, eliciting a similar yet conditioned salivary response. However, let’s take a moment to analyze each component. The Whopper elicits salivation – the Burger King logo signals the Whopper's arrival, thus also eliciting salivation. Could something signal the arrival of the Burger King logo and, thus, elicit salivation? Could the Conditioned Stimulus act as an Unconditioned Stimulus for another Neutral Stimulus? Absolutely! Enter: Higher Order Conditioning.

Suppose there is only one Burger King in your neighbourhood. You step out of your house, walk a few hundred yards down the street, and take a left; a few blocks down is your destination: the Burger King just off Baker Street. 

“What a sight to behold. Fancy a Whopper?” you ask, as your friend John’s eyes shine with glee. 

After demolishing two of them, John shrugs. “They’re fine,” he says. “I’ll have to try them again later, ya know? Just to be sure.” 

A week goes by, and you go over to John’s place to catch up and find out what he actually thinks about the Whopper. Lucky for you, he just moved into a new place, which just so happens to be on Baker Street. Totally normal.

Anyway, on your way to his place, you realize that the moment you turned onto Baker Street, you immediately started salivating! And now that you’ve noticed, it all clicks into place. For weeks, even when Burger King wasn’t your destination, the moment you turned onto Baker Street, you started salivating! You think for a while, and after channelling your inner Sherlock, you realize that Higher-Order conditioning is likely at work. 

You see, initially, the street served as just a street, nothing more or less, akin to a neutral stimulus. It elicited no response in the context of Burger King and the Whopper. However, after visiting Burger King so often, you associated the Burger King logo with the Whopper. Over time, the street itself became associated with the logo. This association grew stronger because Baker Street signalled the availability of Burger King, which signalled the availability of the Whopper. In the context of higher-order conditioning, the association between the Whopper and Burger King logo is called first-order conditioning, while the association between the Burger King logo and Baker Street is called second-order conditioning. Likewise, third-order conditioning can also occur. For instance, just before the turn into Baker Street is a gentlemen’s club (let's call it Diogenes, why not?). You glance at the club every time you turn into Baker Street on your way to Burger King. As the club appears right before Baker Street, the association between the two grows stronger. This growing association results in Baker Street functioning as an Unconditioned Stimulus for Diogenes Club, which then becomes a Conditioned Stimulus, eliciting a conditioned salivary response. This third level of conditioning would then be termed Third Order Conditioning. 

Note that each subsequent order of conditioning has a smaller probability of evoking the conditioned response. As the CS moves further away from the original US, the amount of interference, such as the club being associated with something else, increases consistently. This, in tandem with the idea that longer connections with the US also decrease the relation/connection between it and the CS, results in weaker subsequent associations. For example, the club is not as closely related to the Whopper as the Burger King logo is; thus, salivation due to the club is less likely to occur compared to salivation triggered by the logo. 

When you arrive at John’s place, you find him concocting a devious -- and frankly disturbing -- plan to fake his own death in pursuit of his lifelong dream of reviewing every single Whopper in the world. You sit him down for the lesson of his life. 

“John”, you say, shaking your head in disappointment. “You are the bravest and kindest and wisest human being I have ever had the good fortune of knowing. But this? Madness. Your "lifelong" dream has been an obsession for, what? A week? Go get dressed; we are meeting Jim at Speedy’s in 15.”

References:-

American Psychological Association. (2018). Second-order conditioning. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved February 4, 2025, from https://dictionary.apa.org/second-order-conditioning

Myers, D. G., & DeWall, C. N. (2020). Psychology (13th ed.). Worth Publishers.