Post #10

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.” -John Wolfgang  von Goethe

When I was first searching for a topic to write this blog on I saw the words 'higher-order' and I got super excited because I thought it was higher order thinking, turns out it was conditioning. But either way, I still chose  to write on the topic because it is interesting enough. Higher order conditioning, second-order conditioning, is the association a person makes between a variable and stimulus. Through classical conditioning, by using our five senses (sight, smell, touch, hear, and taste) we can make an association between one of them and something else. For example, seeing the blaze orange color and camouflage combination, makes me think of hunting. Or, smelling a chocolate chip cookie, can emanate within you and make it appear as though you can actually taste the cookie. 

An example was presented about Vietnam war veteran's coming home with supposed large heroin addictions, but most of them disappeared upon entering the United States because their setting changed. Vietnam was the setting for heroin and when it changed, their desires did as well. This idea makes sense in the reverse as well. Just being around, or any sense of heroin for recovering addicts can bring them right back into using. But if the addiction broke so well for 86% of the veterans, then why has this same scenario not been replicated for other addictions or phobias? Is something as simple as moving, can break an addiction being able to harness the same idea of higher order conditioning has the potential to save many lives. 

Higher order thinking is supposed to be harder to achieve than first order, which makes sense because of the extra association that has to be made. And though it may be difficult to execute correctly advertisements and children are perfect master minds behind the idea. Advertisements and media because they can create an image or jingle, which every time you see or hear will automatically be associated with the product. There is a commercial which represents Internet Explorer 9 and they use a popular song in the background. The song is popular enough on its own, to not be played with the commercial, but when I hear it on KDWB all I picture is the TV commercial Internet Explorer 9. Children, obviously, have become genius in the art of throwing a temper tantrum. And most parents can just not say no. And so by saying yes, the child associates getting what they want by throwing a tantrum.