Approach-Avoidance Training: Processes and Applications

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas B. Eder
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2014 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259132772

Research on so-called "approach-avoidance training" (AAT) suggests that motivational reactions to particular stimuli can be modified with a systematic (re)training of approach- and avoidance-related actions. The conditions and causal processes underlying AAT effects are however not very well understood. The continuation project plans to investigate: (1) relations between changes in an implicit approach bias and AAT outcomes measures; (2) specific predictions of two different theoretical accounts of AAT effects (inferential and episodic-retrieval accounts); and (3) factors that influence the effectiveness of AAT procedures (including a meta-analysis). The research into AAT effects should increase knowledge of how people can modify (unwanted) motivations and it should help to find new and/or better intervention methods.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Belgium
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Pieter van Dessel
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Carina Giesen