Automatic effects of no-go instructions.

Previous research has indicated that stimulus-response mappings that have been instructed but never applied overtly before can lead to automatic response biases when they are irrelevant. In the present study, we investigated whether the same applies to no-go instructions, which relate a stimulus to a no-go response. The results of 2 experiments suggest that a no-go instruction that has never been practiced overtly before can automatically bias responding when it is irrelevant. In addition, the automatic effect of a no-go instruction was similar in size to the automatic effect of a go instruction. Finally, the automatic effect of an unpracticed no-go instruction tended to be larger than the automatic effect of an overtly practiced no-go instruction. We propose that (a) associations between a stimulus and the requirement to stop can be formed on the basis of instructions and without overt practice, (b) these associations may be functionally equivalent to associations formed on the basis of go instructions, and (c) overtly practiced no-go instructions and unpracticed no-go instructions are represented in different formats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).