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Awareness predicts the magnitude of single‐cue trace eyeblink conditioning
Author(s) -
Manns Joseph R.,
Clark Robert E.,
Squire Larry R.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-1063(2000)10:2<181::aid-hipo7>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - eyeblink conditioning , conditioning , psychology , classical conditioning , unconditioned stimulus , measures of conditioned emotional response , stimulus (psychology) , audiology , conditioned response , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , medicine , statistics , mathematics
Studies of differential eyeblink conditioning (CS + and CS ‐ ) have demonstrated that successful conditioning requires awareness of the stimulus contingencies and that delay conditioning does not. Two experiments were carried out to determine whether awareness is also important for single‐cue trace eyeblink conditioning. In experiment 1, participants who performed a secondary, attention‐demanding task emitted significantly fewer conditioned eyeblink responses than participants who watched a silent movie during the conditioning session. In experiment 2, participants who became aware of the stimulus contingencies early in the conditioning session emitted significantly more conditioned responses during the remainder of the session than participants who became aware later in the session or who never became aware. These results indicate that awareness is important for single‐cue trace eyeblink conditioning, just as it is for differential trace conditioning. The relationship between awareness and trace eyeblink conditioning is discussed in the light of these and other recent findings. Hippocampus 10:181–186, 2000 © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.