80 female albino rats, shocked once while eating in the presence of a novel stimulus panel, were exposed to a complex stimulus object after a blackout period of 1-40 sec. 40 other Ss served as controls. The next day Ss were observed in a test for differential avoidance of the shock location, the forward-order conditioned stimulus (CS) and the backward-order CS. On the basis of 5 different classes of behavior, Ss in the 1-, 5-, and 10-sec blackout groups avoided the backward-order CS rather than the shock location or the forward-order CS. The association does not appear to be based primarily on temporal sequence or the signaling relationship involved in Pavlovian conditioning. Instead, it appears that the association is dependent on the specific nature of the stimuli, possibly reflecting an evolved learning capability for associating noxious exteroceptive stimuli with predatorlike objects. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)