The effects of instructions, level of fear, duration of exposure and repeated measures on the Behavioral Avoidance Test

This research studied the effects of level of fear, instructions, duration of each step and the effect of retest on the performance of subjects on a Behavioral Avoidance Test of a harmless snake. Results showed a significant effect of the level of fear. instructions, and effect of retest on the performance of these subjects. An interaction between level of fear and instructions was also found for a proportion of subjects manipulating the snake. This interaction indicated that moderately afraid subjects were relatively more influenced by the instructions than very afraid subjects.