Limitations and future considerations
approach-avoidance behaviors
The AACT could be an important asset to task-based approach-avoidance research due to the ambiguous conflict it creates compared with other approach-avoidance tasks with clearly instructed correct responses (e.g., Chen and Bargh A major advantage of the AACT is that threat level and initial threat distance can be easily manipulated. However, we were unable to confirm our assumption that a short (vs. long) initial threat distance would lead to faster initial responding. Perhaps perceived threat distance was amplified by the temporal distance to threat as there was at least a 6-s window before predator wake-up and therefore enough time to escape. Moreover, the experience of threat level can also be based on the speed with which a predator becomes active (Fung et al. In conclusion, our hypotheses that the combined effects of cortisol and NA would resemble previously reported stress effects on approach-avoidance behavior did not hold true. We believe the most natural explanation would be that cortisol and NA are either not the (sole) relevant mediators for changes in approach-avoidance behaviors under stress, requiring further aspects of the stress response to be active, or that dosage of the interventions needed to be more fine-tuned. Gender, however, affects almost all outcome parameters investigated here. This stresses the importance of properly controlling for or specifically investigating gender in approach-avoidance research in the future.