Post-assessment
One day following the exposure treatment, the exposure group completed the post-assessment. After a rehearsal of the BAT instructions, the exposure group again underwent the two BATs. During the post-assessment BATs, participants rated their subjective fear level at the same approach distance they had accomplished at the pre-assessment (=defined as the initial approach distance). In the case that their fear at that distance was not yet intolerable, the participants continued with the BATs and reported their level of subjective fear at the closest tolerable distance (=defined as the final approach distance). The difference between initial approach distance (maximal approach achieved during pre-treatment) and final approach distance (maximal approach achieved during the post-treatment) reflects a change in avoidance behavior induced by the exposure treatment for the treated stimuli or the generalization effect for the untreated stimuli.At the end of this session, participants again completed the spider fear-related questionnaires (FSQ, SPQ, SBQ) and the AQ, and were fully debriefed.