Stimuli that predict a rewarding outcome can cause difficulties to inhibit unfavourable behaviour. Research suggests that this is also the case for stimuli with a history of reward extending these effects on action control to situations, where reward is no longer accessible. We expand this line of research by investigating if previously reward-predictive stimuli promote behavioural activation and impair motor inhibition in a second unrelated task. In two experiments participants were trained to associate colours with a monetary reward or neutral feedback. Afterwards participants performed a cued go/no-go task, where cues appeared in the colours previously associated with feedback during training. In both experiments training resulted in faster responses in rewarded trials providing evidence of a value-driven response bias as long as reward was accessible. However, stimuli with a history of reward did not interfere with goal-directed action and inhibition in a subsequent task after removal of the reward incentives. While the first experiment was not conclusive regarding an impact of reward-associated cues on response inhibition, the second experiment, validated by Bayesian statistics, clearly questioned an effect of reward history on inhibitory control. This stands in contrast to earlier findings suggesting that the effect of reward history on subsequent action control is not as consistent as previously assumed. Our results show that participants are able to overcome influences from Pavlovian learning in a simple inhibition task. We discuss our findings with respect to features of the experimental design which may help or complicate overcoming behavioural biases induced by reward history.

预测奖励结果的刺激可能会导致难以抑制不利行为。研究表明，具有奖励历史的刺激也会将这些对动作控制的影响扩展到不再获得奖励的情况。我们通过调查先前的奖励预测刺激是否在第二个不相关的任务中促进行为激活并损害运动抑制来扩展这一研究方向。在两个实验中，参与者被训练将颜色与金钱奖励或中性反馈联系起来。之后，参与者执行了一个提示的 go/no-go 任务，其中提示出现在以前与训练期间的反馈相关联的颜色中。在这两个实验中，只要奖励是可获得的，训练都会在奖励试验中产生更快的反应，从而提供价值驱动的反应偏差的证据。然而，具有奖励历史的刺激在去除奖励激励后不会干扰后续任务中的目标导向动作和抑制。虽然第一个实验对于奖励相关线索对反应抑制的影响尚无定论，但通过贝叶斯统计验证的第二个实验清楚地质疑奖励历史对抑制控制的影响。这与早期的发现形成鲜明对比，后者表明奖励历史对后续行动控制的影响并不像之前假设的那样一致。我们的结果表明，参与者能够在简单的抑制任务中克服巴甫洛夫学习的影响。