The stall warning system shuts down at slower airspeeds. Each time they did the correct move, adding power and/or decreasing AOA, the airspeed would increase and the stall warnings would commence again. Thus , they believed they were doing something to lead to a stall, and they reversed whatever they had done.
If the stall warning system was designed not to shut off at very low airspeeds when the plane was not in the landing config, they might have clearly recognized that they were in a stall.