The importance of awareness for eyeblink conditioning is conditional: Theoretical comment on Bellebaum and Daum (2004)

Eyeblink conditioning entails a variety of paradigms that differ in terms of the brain systems that support conditioning and the importance of awareness. In this issue, C. Bellebaum and I. Daum (2004) report that conditional discrimination learning depends on awareness. Their findings, along with other recent work, suggest a framework whereby the temporal features of the conditioning paradigm are critical in determining the ability of the cerebellum to support conditioning and, as a result, the role of awareness in conditioning.