scholarly journals A mobile approach-avoidance task

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 2085-2097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilmar G. Zech ◽  
Mark Rotteveel ◽  
Wilco W. van Dijk ◽  
Lotte F. van Dillen
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Physical Distance ◽  
Response Force ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Desktop Computers ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Original Approach ◽  
Distance Change

Abstract Approach and avoidance tendencies have helped explain phenomena as diverse as addiction (Mogg, Field, & Bradley, 2005), phobia (Rinck & Becker, 2007), and intergroup discrimination (Bianchi, Carnaghi, & Shamloo, 2018; Degner, Essien, & Reichardt, 2016). When the original approach-avoidance task (AAT; Solarz, 1960) that measures these tendencies was redesigned to run on regular desktop computers, it made the task much more flexible but also sacrificed some important behavioral properties of the original task—most notably its reliance on physical distance change (Chen & Bargh, 1999). Here, we present a new, mobile version of the AAT that runs entirely on smartphones and combines the flexibility of modern tasks with the behavioral properties of the original AAT. In addition, it can easily be deployed in the field and, next to traditional reaction time measurements, includes the novel measurement of response force. In two studies, we demonstrate that the mobile AAT can reliably measure known approach-avoidance tendencies toward happy and angry faces both in the laboratory and in the field.

Approach and Avoidance Tendencies Toward Picture Stimuli of (Pre-)Pubescent Children and Adults: An Investigation in Pedophilic and Nonpedophilic Samples

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 781-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Weidacker ◽  
C. Kärgel ◽  
C. Massau ◽  
S. Weiß ◽  
J. Kneer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Avoidance Reaction ◽  
Stimulus Category ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Picture Stimuli ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Sexual Interests

The presence of pedophilic sexual interests is considered of high importance for predicting recidivism among individuals who have committed sexual offenses. However, objective and valid assessment methods that are robust against confounding issues such as cognitive capacity and manipulation are sparse. We applied the Approach–Avoidance Task (AAT) for detecting sexual interests in 38 pedophilic men (18 primarily attracted to boys) and 27 male nonpedophilic (11 gay) participants. The AAT relies on automatic approach and avoidance tendencies, independent of cognitive abilities such as memory capacity and intelligence. Approach–avoidance tendencies toward stimuli depicting seminude prepubescent boys and girls as well as men and women are reported. The results were consistent with previous research on the utility of the AAT: Except for pedophiles attracted to girls, the mean AAT scores (approach minus avoidance reaction time for each stimulus category) were positive only for stimuli of the preferred category. A multivariate binary logistic regression approach revealed 80% overall accuracy in differentiating pedophilic from nonpedophilic participants.

scholarly journals Improving the touchscreen-based food approach-avoidance task: remediated block-order effects and initial findings regarding validity

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Hannah van Alebeek ◽  
Sercan Kahveci ◽  
Jens Blechert
Keyword(s):  
Order Effects ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Eating Patterns ◽  
Eating Behaviours ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Implicit Association Task ◽  
External Eating ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Desire To Eat

Approach biases to foods may explain why food consumption often diverges from deliberate dietary intentions. Yet, the assessment of behavioural biases with the approach-avoidance tasks (AAT) is often unreliable and validity is partially unclear. The present study continues a series of studies that develop a task based on naturalistic approach and avoidance movements on a touchscreen (hand-AAT). In the hand-AAT, participants are instructed to respond based on the food/non-food distinction, thereby ensuring attention to the stimuli. Yet, this implies the use of instruction switches (i.e., ‘approach food – avoid objects’ to ‘avoid food – approach objects’), which introduce order effects. The present study increased the number of instruction switches to potentially minimize order effects, and re-examined reliability. We additionally included the implicit association task (IAT) and several self-reported eating behaviours to investigate the task’s validity. Results replicated the presence of reliable approach biases to foods irrespective of instruction order. Evidence for validity, however, was mixed: biases correlated positively with external eating, increase in food craving and aggregated image valence ratings but not with desire to eat ratings of the individual images considered within participants or the IAT. We conclude that the hand-AAT can reliably assess approach biases to foods that are relevant to self-reported eating patterns.

scholarly journals Improving the touchscreen-based food approach-avoidance task: remediated block-order effects and initial findings regarding validity

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Hannah van Alebeek ◽  
Sercan Kahveci ◽  
Jens Blechert
Keyword(s):  
Order Effects ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Eating Patterns ◽  
Eating Behaviours ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Implicit Association Task ◽  
External Eating ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Desire To Eat

Approach biases to foods may explain why food consumption often diverges from deliberate dietary intentions. Yet, the assessment of behavioural biases with the approach-avoidance tasks (AAT) is often unreliable and validity is partially unclear. The present study continues a series of studies that develop a task based on naturalistic approach and avoidance movements on a touchscreen (hand-AAT). In the hand-AAT, participants are instructed to respond based on the food/non-food distinction, thereby ensuring attention to the stimuli. Yet, this implies the use of instruction switches (i.e., ‘approach food – avoid objects’ to ‘avoid food – approach objects’), which introduce order effects. The present study increased the number of instruction switches to potentially minimize order effects, and re-examined reliability. We additionally included the implicit association task (IAT) and several self-reported eating behaviours to investigate the task’s validity. Results replicated the presence of reliable approach biases to foods irrespective of instruction order. Evidence for validity, however, was mixed: biases correlated positively with external eating, increase in food craving and aggregated image valence ratings but not with desire to eat ratings of the individual images considered within participants or the IAT. We conclude that the hand-AAT can reliably assess approach biases to foods that are relevant to self-reported eating patterns.

scholarly journals Improving the touchscreen-based food approach-avoidance task: remediated block-order effects and initial findings regarding validity

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Hannah van Alebeek ◽  
Sercan Kahveci ◽  
Jens Blechert
Keyword(s):  
Order Effects ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Eating Patterns ◽  
Eating Behaviours ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Implicit Association Task ◽  
External Eating ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Desire To Eat

Approach biases to foods may explain why food consumption often diverges from deliberate dietary intentions. When cognitive resources are depleted, implicit responses may contribute to overeating and overweight. Yet, the assessment of behavioural biases with the approach-avoidance tasks (AAT) is often unreliable. We previously addressed methodological limitations of the AAT by employing naturalistic approach and avoidance movements on a touchscreen (hand-AAT) and instructing participants to respond based on the food/non-food distinction. In the consistent block, participants were instructed to approach food and avoid objects while in the inconsistent block, participants were instructed to avoid foods and approach objects. Biases were highly reliable but affected by the order in which participants received the two task blocks. In the current study, we aimed to resolve the block order effects by increasing the number of blocks from two to six and validate the hand-AAT with the implicit association task (IAT) and self-reported eating behaviours. We replicated the presence of reliable approach biases to foods and further showed that these were not affected by block order. Evidence for validity was mixed: biases correlated positively with external eating, food craving and aggregated image valence ratings but not with within-participants differences in desire to eat ratings of the images or the IAT. We conclude that hand-AAT can reliably assess approach biases to foods that are relevant to self-reported eating patterns and were not probably confounded by block-order effects.

scholarly journals Measuring Implicit Approach–Avoidance Tendencies towards Food Using a Mobile Phone Outside the Lab

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1440
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Brouwer ◽  
Jasper J. van Beers ◽  
Priya Sabu ◽  
Ivo V. Stuldreher ◽  
Hilmar G. Zech ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Implicit Measure ◽  
Palatable Food ◽  
Implicit Approach ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Food Images ◽  
Response Biases

Implicit (‘unconscious’) approach–avoidance tendencies towards stimuli can be measured using the Approach Avoidance Task (AAT). We recently expanded a toolbox for analyzing the raw data of a novel, mobile version of the AAT (mAAT), that asks participants to move their phone towards their face (pull) or away (push) in response to images presented on the phone. We here tested the mAAT reaction time and the mAAT distance in a study with 71 Dutch participants that were recruited online and performed an experiment without coming to the laboratory. The participants used both the mAAT and (explicit) rating scales to respond to photographic images of food. As hypothesized, the rated wanting, rated valence and mAAT reaction time indicated a preference for palatable over unpalatable food, and for Dutch over Asian food. Additionally, as expected, arousal was rated higher for unpalatable than for palatable food, and higher for Dutch than for Asian food. The mAAT distance indicated that the unpalatable food images were moved across larger distances, regardless of the movement direction (pull or push), compared to the palatable food images; and the Dutch food images were moved across larger distances than the Asian food images. We conclude that the mAAT can be used to implicitly probe approach–avoidance motivation for complex images in the food domain. The new measure of mAAT distance may be used as an implicit measure of arousal. The ratings and the mAAT measures do not reflect the exact same information and may complement each other. Implicit measures, such as mAAT variables, are particularly valuable when response biases that can occur when using explicit ratings are expected.

scholarly journals Does testosterone affect emotional perception after social approach-avoidance?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Radke ◽  
Inge Volman ◽  
Pranjal Mehta ◽  
Veerle van Son ◽  
Dorien Enter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Threat Detection ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Amygdala Activation ◽  
Emotional Perception ◽  
The Social ◽  
Testosterone Administration ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Threat Avoidance

Testosterone may promote approach-related behaviors by modulating sensitivity to social threat. In humans, testosterone increases amygdala activation to angry facial expressions, specifically when threat approach is required. As both increased and decreased threat detection after testosterone administration have been reported, we aim to contribute to the discussion by sharing additional results, i.e., perception ratings, from our previously published findings. Here, a single dose of 0.5 mg of testosterone increased amygdala activation during threat approach, and decreased it during threat avoidance. After the MRI session, about 5 hours post-administration, participants rated their emotional perception of the faces to which they had made approach and avoidance actions in the social approach-avoidance task.

scholarly journals Evidence for the Embodiment of the automatic approach bias

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Solzbacher ◽  
Artur Czeszumski ◽  
Sven Walter ◽  
Peter König
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Drug Addiction ◽  
The Body ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Negative Stimuli

Tendencies of approach and avoidance seem to be a universal characteristic of humans. Specifically, individuals are faster in avoiding than in approaching negative stimuli and they are faster in approaching than in avoiding positive stimuli. The existence of this automatic approach/avoidance bias has been demonstrated in many studies. Furthermore, this bias is thought to play a key role in psychological disorders like drug addiction and phobias. However, its mechanisms are far from clear. Theories of embodied cognition postulate, that the nature of gestures play a key role in this process.To shed light on the role of the involved gesture we employed a 2x2 factorial design with two types of stimuli. Participants had either to approach positive and avoid negative stimuli (congruent conditions) or to avoid positive stimuli and approach negative stimuli (incongruent conditions). Further, they responded either with a joystick or a button press on a response pad. Participants reacted faster in congruent conditions, i.e., avoiding negative stimuli and approaching positive stimuli, then in incongruent conditions. This replicates the known approach and avoidance bias. However, directly analyzing the button press condition participants revealed no reaction time advantage for congruent trials compared to incongruent trials. In contrast, in the joystick condition participants were significantly faster performing congruent reactions than incongruent reactions. This interaction, a significant reaction time advantage, when the response is enacted by moving a joystick towards or away from the body gives evidence that approach-avoidance tendencies have a crucial bodily component.

Instruction-Based Approach-Avoidance Effects

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Van Dessel ◽  
Jan De Houwer ◽  
Anne Gast ◽  
Colin Tucker Smith
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Association Test ◽  
Avoidance Training ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Implicit Association ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Evaluative Priming ◽  
Blacks And Whites ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Explicit Measures

Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a certain stimulus changes the liking of this stimulus. We investigated whether these effects of approach and avoidance training occur also when participants do not perform these actions but are merely instructed about the stimulus-action contingencies. Stimulus evaluations were registered using both implicit (Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming) and explicit measures (valence ratings). Instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were observed for relatively neutral fictitious social groups (i.e., Niffites and Luupites), but not for clearly valenced well-known social groups (i.e., Blacks and Whites). We conclude that instructions to approach or avoid stimuli can provide sufficient bases for establishing both implicit and explicit evaluations of novel stimuli and discuss several possible reasons for why similar instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were not found for valenced well-known stimuli.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document