Encouragement, anxiety, and test performance.

"To determine the effect of encouragement on the individual test performance of Ss with varying amounts of anxiety, two anxiety scales were first administered to a sample of college students… three groups of Ss were selected and designated low-, medium-, and high-anxiety. To each S was individually administered the MacQuarrie Test for Mechanical Ability… . On the basis of scores on this test, each anxiety category was divided into two equated groups. Six weeks later the test was again individually administered to each S, this time encouraging comments being offered between subtests to one group in each category but not to the other. Two-tailed t tests revealed only one significant finding: the performance of the low-anxiety Ss displayed increased variability under encouragement." 23 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)