Artículos de revistas
Sea slugs, subliminal pictures, and vegetative state patients: Boundaries of consciousness in classical conditioning
Fecha
2011-12Registro en:
Bekinschtein, Tristán Andrés; Peeters, Moos; Shalóm, Diego Edgar; Sigman, Mariano; Sea slugs, subliminal pictures, and vegetative state patients: Boundaries of consciousness in classical conditioning; FRONTIERS RES FOUND; Frontiers in Psychology; 2; 12-2011; 1-7
1664-1078
CONICET Digital
CONICET
Autor
Bekinschtein, Tristán Andrés
Peeters, Moos
Shalóm, Diego Edgar
Sigman, Mariano
Resumen
Classical (trace) conditioning is a specific variant of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus leads to the subsequent prediction of an emotionally charged or noxious stimulus after a temporal gap. When conditioning is concurrent with a distraction task, only participants who can report the relationship (the contingency) between stimuli explicitly show associative learning. This suggests that consciousness is a prerequisite for trace conditioning. We review and question three main controversies concerning this view. Firstly, virtually all animals, even invertebrate sea slugs, show this type of learning; secondly, unconsciously perceived stimuli may elicit trace conditioning; and thirdly, some vegetative state patients show trace learning. We discuss and analyze these seemingly contradictory arguments to find the theoretical boundaries of consciousness in classical conditioning. We conclude that trace conditioning remains one of the best measures to test conscious processing in the absence of explicit reports. © 2011 Bekinschtein, Peeters, Shalom and Sigman.