What Does It Take for Sour Grapes to Remain Sour? Persistent Effects of Behavioral Inhibition in Go/No-Go Tasks on the Evaluation of Appetitive Stimuli

Recent studies have provided contradictory results on whether the pairing of appetitive stimuli with no-go responses in go/no-go tasks leads to a devaluation of these stimuli. The authors of the present studies argue that devaluation effects after pairings of appetitive stimuli (e.g., unhealthy snacks or fruit) with no-go responses are usually short-lived but can become persistent if the stimuli form a meaningful category of appetitive stimuli that one should usually avoid (e.g., unhealthy snacks). In 3 studies, the authors found no persistent devaluation effects for appetitive stimuli that were paired with no-go responses when the pairings conveyed no meaning beyond the completion of the go/no-go task (e.g., pairing of no-go responses with fruit or pairing of no-go responses with a mixture of healthy and unhealthy stimuli). However, persistent devaluation effects after a delay of 10 min were found when no-go responses were consistently paired with unhealthy snacks contrasted against fruit.