title: Beer à no-go: learning to stop responding to alcohol cues reduces alcohol intake via reduced affective associations rather than increased response inhibition.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous research has shown that consistently not responding to alcohol-related stimuli in a go/no-go training procedure reduces drinking behaviour. This study aimed to examine further the mechanisms underlying this go/no-go training effect.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-seven heavy drinkers were assigned randomly to two training conditions: in the beer/no-go condition, alcohol-related stimuli were always paired with a stopping response, while in the beer/go condition participants always responded to alcohol-related stimuli. Participants were tested individually in a laboratory at Maastricht University.
  
  
  METHODS
  Weekly alcohol intake, implicit attitudes towards beer, approach-avoidance action tendencies towards beer and response inhibition were measured before and after the training.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results showed a significant reduction in both implicit attitudes (P = 0.03) and alcohol intake (P = 0.02) in the beer/no-go condition, but not in the beer/go condition. There were no significant training effects on action tendencies or response inhibition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Repeatedly stopping pre-potent responses towards alcohol-related stimuli reduces excessive alcohol use via a devaluation of alcohol-related stimuli rather than via increased inhibitory control over alcohol-related responses.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Katrijn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Houben
authors.forename: Remco C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Havermans
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nederkoorn
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D001515:Beer; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male