Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to a change in liking of a conditioned stimulus (CS) subsequent to its repeated pairing with a valent stimulus (US). Two studies that bring new light on the highly debated question of the role of awareness in EC were conducted. We developed an innovative method motivated by higher order and integration theories of consciousness to distinguish between the role of conscious and unconscious knowledge about the pairings. On each trial of the awareness test, participants had to indicate the valence of the US associated with a given CS and to make a ‘structural knowledge attribution’ by reporting the basis of their response. Valence identification accuracy was used to evaluate knowledge while the knowledge attribution was used to measure the conscious status of knowledge. Memory attribution indicated conscious knowledge about the pairings while feeling-based and random attributions indicated unconscious knowledge. A meta-analysis of the two studies revealed that valence identification accuracy was above chance level for memory and feeling-based attributions but not for the random attribution. EC was found in the three attributions. While EC effect size was medium for the memory attribution it was small for feeling-based and random attributions. Moreover, Experiment 2 included a delayed test. EC was still present 24 h after the conditioning took place. The results obtained for memory and feeling-based attributions suggest that both conscious and unconscious knowledge may underlie EC. The results obtained for random attribution suggest that EC may also occur without any knowledge of US valence.

评价条件（EC）是指条件刺激（CS）与价物刺激（US）重复配对后，其喜欢条件的变化。进行了两项研究，使人们对高度关注的意识在EC中的作用提出了新的观点。我们开发了一种创新的方法，该方法受高级意识和整合理论的启发来区分有意识和无意识的配对知识。在意识测试的每个试验中，参与者必须指出与给定CS相关的美国价，并做出“结构性知识归因”通过报告其回应的依据。价识别准确性用于评估知识，而知识归因用于衡量知识的意识状态。记忆归因表明有关配对的有意识知识，而基于感觉的和随机归因表明无意识的知识。对两项研究的荟萃分析显示，对于基于记忆和基于感觉的归因而言，化合价识别准确度高于机会水平，但对于随机归因而言则不然。在这三个属性中都找到了EC。虽然EC效应大小对于记忆归因而言是中等的，但对于基于感觉的归因和随机归因而言却很小。此外，实验2包含延迟测试。调节后24小时仍存在EC。基于记忆和基于感觉的归因获得的结果表明，有意识和无意识知识都可能是EC的基础。对于随机归因获得的结果表明，在没有任何美国价知识的情况下也可能发生EC。