Classical conditioning of meaning--I. A replication and higher-order extension.

The meaning that individuals associate with verbal stimuli may be modified by using classical conditioning procedures. Clinically, such procedures may be used to modify a client's maladaptive associations. The current research investigated the existence and generalizability of this phenomenon by attempting to replicate Staats and Staats' (1957) language conditioning effect and then extent it to a second-order classical conditioning situation (CS1----UCS then CS2----CS1). Such higher-order conditioning would suggest that several different but related maladaptive associations can be modified simultaneously. Significant conditioning was obtained to the CS1, particularly for aware subjects, but no conditioning occurred to the CS2.