Okay. So for this one, we're going to be putting events in order to describe higher-order conditioning and then we're going to circle the step where the original conditioned stimulus is no longer needed to produce the conditioned response. Alright, so if we are thinking about second-order or higher-order conditioning, the first thing that we have to do is basically have a previously established conditioned response. For example, a bell that makes an animal salivate. Based on that, it looks like that would be here, so we'll cross out and put that over here.
So that's the first thing that we have to do and now we basically have to pair a new neutral stimulus with that conditioned stimulus over and over in some kind of acquisition or learning trials. That would be here. So we're going to be pairing our new neutral stimulus, for example, our flashing light, with our conditioned stimulus, for example, our bell, and then over time that light alone is going to be enough to produce a conditioned response which is what is describing here. So our neutral stimulus is now considered a conditioned stimulus and it by itself can elicit that conditioned response. Out of all these steps, the only one where we don't need the previous conditioned stimulus present at all is going to be this final one right here.
Remember, obviously, we would need it here before any learning has taken place; at that point, our neutral stimulus is completely neutral and has no meaning to the animal. Right? And then during the acquisition phases, we do need that conditioned stimulus, the previous one, still present in order to elicit that response. The neutral stimulus is being learned about but not in a strong enough way where it's producing that response on its own yet during that acquisition phase. However, by our final phase here, you know, kind of that after conditioning or after learning then our new neutral stimulus, now called a conditioned stimulus, is going to be strong enough to produce that response all on its own.
So there you have it.