Time Cues Block the CS, but the CS Does Not Block Time Cues

Analysis of conditioned defensive freezing in rats revealed that prior pairings of a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and footshock in Context 1 at Time 1 failed to give that tone CS the power to block conditioning to Context 2 at Time 2. This failure of an excitatory CS to block conditioning of time cues was not reciprocal. When the stimulus roles were reversed, excitatory time cues blocked conditioning to the tone CS. This asymmetry in blocking is best explained by the notion that time cues have special access to the association-formation mechanism.