Guerrieri et al. (86) and Jones et al. (87, 88) were able to influence participants’ responding during a Stop Signal task by manipulating task instructions. One group of participants were instructed to prioritize rapid responding rather than successful inhibition, whereas these instructions were reversed for a different group of participants. These instructions had the anticipated effects on performance on the Stop Signal task: the former group were faster to respond on “Go” trials but they made more inhibition errors, compared to the latter group, who were slow to respond on “Go” trials but were much more successful at inhibiting their responding. Arguably, this manipulation of task instructions changes participants’ mental set while they complete the Stop Signal task. In the former group, a disinhibited mental set is temporarily induced, whereas a more restrained and cautious mental set is induced in the latter group. Once these disinhibited mental sets have been induced, this allows us to investigate whether disinhibited (versus restrained) mental sets have a causal influence on craving and food or alcohol consumption, something which was accomplished by measuring these
