Fred's dog is classically conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell. Fred repeatedly pairs the bell with another stimulus, a whistle. Now whenever he blows the whistle, his dog salivates, even though the whistle has never been paired with food. This example illustrates:
A) higher order conditioning (second-order conditioning).
B) spontaneous recovery.
C) a placebo response.
D) biological preparedness.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario illustrates higher order conditioning (second-order conditioning) because the whistle becomes a conditioned stimulus even though it was never directly paired with food. Instead, the whistle was paired with the bell, which was already a conditioned stimulus. The whistle then becomes associated with the bell and elicits the same response (salivation) as the bell.

Fred's Dog Is Classically Conditioned to Salivate at the Sound