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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Classical Short-Delay Eyeblink Conditioning in One-Year-Old Children
Published on: September 1, 2018
Acquisition of differential delay eyeblink classical conditioning is independent of awareness
Christine N Smith1, Robert E Clark, Joseph R Manns
1Institute for Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Abstract:
There has been debate about whether differential delay eyeblink conditioning can be acquired without awareness of the stimulus contingencies. In 4 experiments, the authors reexamined this question. Older participants were tested with a tone and white noise (Experiment 1) or with 2 tones (Experiment 2). In addition, younger participants were tested with 2 tones (Experiment 3) or with 2 tones plus the parameters from an earlier study that had reported a relationship between conditioning and awareness (Experiment 4). Participants who were designated aware of the stimulus contingencies and participants who were designated unaware exhibited equivalent levels of differential eyeblink conditioning. Awareness of stimulus contingencies is not required for differential delay eyeblink conditioning when simple conditioned stimuli are used.
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