Testing Go/No-Go training effects on implicit evaluations of unhealthy and healthy snack foods

OBJECTIVE

Despite intending to eat healthy foods, people often yield to temptation. In environments rife with unhealthy food options, a positive implicit evaluation of unhealthy foods may inadvertently influence unhealthy choices. This study investigates if and under which conditions implicit evaluations of unhealthy and healthy foods can be influenced by a computer-based Go/No-Go (GNG) training.

DESIGN

Undergraduate student participants (N = 161 participants; 117 females, 44 males; Mage = 19 years, SD = 2 years) completed a GNG training with two healthy (grape and nut) and two unhealthy (potato chip and cookie) stimuli. Participants were either instructed to inhibit their responses to the potato chip (No-Go Chips/Go Grape) or to a grape (No-Go Grape/Go Chips).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Implicit evaluations of chips and grapes were assessed using the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task.

RESULTS

This GNG training impacted implicit evaluations of chips, but not grapes. GNG training effects were stronger for participants with lower sensitivity for behavioural inhibition measured with the Behavioural Inhibition System scale.

CONCLUSION

GNG training might help people change implicit food evaluations. More research is needed to understand how individual and training characteristics affect outcomes with the goal of tailoring and optimising the GNG training to produce the strongest effect.

Frontal Theta Oscillation as a Mechanism for Implicit Gender Stereotype Control: Electrophysiological Evidence From an Extrinsic Affective Simon Task

Previous research has indicated that frontal midline theta (FMθ) reflects a domain-general cognitive control mechanism of the prefrontal cortex. Brain imaging studies have shown that the inhibition of implicit stereotypes was dependent on this domain-general cognitive control mechanism. Based on this knowledge, the present study investigated the neural oscillatory correlates of implicit gender stereotype control in an extrinsic affective Simon task (EAST) using electrophysiological methods. Participants in this task conducted verification to white gender names and colored gender traits, and their behavioral response and electroencephalogram (EEG) were recorded during their performances. As predicted, stereotype-inconsistent trials resulted in reduced response accuracies and slower response times than stereotype-consistent trials. For the event-related potential (ERP) results, the enhanced performance of stereotype-inconsistent trials was accompanied by an enhanced N400 amplitude but an attenuated late positive potential amplitude. In contrast, early attentional components such as P2 and N2 as well as their amplitudes were impacted by the experimental manipulations and individual differences in gender factors. In addition, based on time–frequency (TF) analysis, we found that the enhanced performance of stereotype-inconsistent trials was also accompanied by an event-related synchronization on the frontal theta oscillation. This frontal theta appeared at a late processing stage and persisted across a time window from N400 to late positive potential. Additionally, this enhanced frontal theta effect was not modulated by the experimental manipulations and individual differences in gender factors. Based on these findings, the feature of frontal theta oscillation in the implicit gender stereotype control process was discussed.