Devaluation of NoGo stimuli is both robust and fragile.

Consistently not responding to stimuli during go/no-go training leads to lower evaluations of these NoGo stimuli. How this NoGo-devaluation-effect can be explained has remained unclear. Here, we ran three experiments to test the hypothesis that people form stimulus-stop-associations during the training, which predict the strength of the devaluation-effect.

Confidence in evaluations and value-based decisions reflects variation in experienced values.

Evaluations and value-based decisions are often accompanied by a feeling of confidence about whether or not the evaluation or decision is accurate. We argue that this feeling of confidence reflects the variation of an underlying value distribution and that this value distribution represents previously experienced values related to an object. Two preregistered experiments in which the variation of such value distributions was systematically varied provide causal evidence in favor of this hypothesis.

The role of attention in explaining the no-go devaluation effect: Effects on appetitive food items.

Evaluations of stimuli can be changed by simple motor responses such that stimuli to which responses are consistently withheld tend to be evaluated less positively than other stimuli. The exact mechanism that underlies this effect is still unknown. Here we examine whether attention to the stimuli during training contributes to the devaluation effect.

When mere action versus inaction leads to robust preference change.

Understanding the formation and modification of preferences is important for explaining human behavior across many domains. Here we examined when and how preferences for food items can be changed by linking mere action versus inaction to these items. In 7 preregistered experiments, participants were trained to consistently respond to certain food items (go items) and not respond to other items (no-go items) in a go/no-go training.