Worry, emotionality, and task-generated interference in test anxiety: An empirical test of attentional theory.

Investigated sources of interference in highly test anxious Ss performing under evaluative stress. 185 college students were administered the Test Anxiety Scale. Those from the upper (34 Ss) and lower (34 Ss) 30% of the distribution solved difficult anagrams under 2 evaluative conditions: high stress (evaluative) and low stress (nonevaluative). Major findings are that the high-anxiety/high-stress group (a) reported more anxiety during testing; (b) rated themselves, their abilities, and the task more negatively; (c) solved fewer anagrams; (d) estimated spending less time on task; (e) experienced more interference from anxiety; and (f) reported greater distraction of attention to heightened autonomic arousal (emotionality), worrisome thoughts (worry), and task-produced competing responses (task-generated interference) than did either the high-anxiety/low-stress or low-anxiety/high-stress group. Findings are interpreted in terms of attentional theories of anxiety. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Arousal and perceptual sensitivity in hypochondriacs.

Absolute auditory sensitivity and visual 2-flash fusion sensitivity were examined in 22 high- and 21 low-hypochondriasis (MMPI Hs scale and Whiteley Index, an attitude toward illness measure) scorers selected from a normal undergraduate population. Signal detection analysis was used for both the visual and auditory measures to separate the effects of criterion and actual sensitivity. Hypochondriacal Ss were significantly more sensitive on the 2-flash fusion task than nonhypochondriacal Ss. For the auditory experiment, the difference in sensitivity between hypochondriacal and nonhypochondriacal Ss was in the predicted direction but was not significant. Cluster analysis of the hypochondriasis items showed a cluster of items consistent with the concept of an arousal-based hypochondriasis. Analysis of the visual data showed this cluster to be a better predictor of visual 2-flash fusion sensitivity than the total hypochondriasis scale. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and perceptual structure: Individual differences in neuropsychological function.

Studied the cognitive performance of 24 high and 36 low trait anxious undergraduates under conditions of high and low situational stress, using tasks requiring greater contribution of the right or left hemisphere. In addition, a perceptual task was adapted from visual information processing research to assess Ss' global or analytic approaches to perception; if anxiety increased the left hemisphere's contribution to perception, anxious Ss might be expected to be more analytic and detail oriented. Results show no significant differences on left hemisphere tasks but a significant interaction of trait by state anxiety for right hemisphere tasks: Low trait Ss performed better and high trait Ss performed more poorly under situational stress. Trait anxiety showed a significant main effect on visual information processing strategy, low Ss tending to be more global and high Ss tending to process the stimulus analytically. Results support the utility of a neuropsychological model in describing the effects of emotion on perception. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety and verbal learning.

3 groups, differing in anxiety, learned 2 different types of paired-associate materials and then half of each anxiety group were tested under "immediate" and half under "delay" conditions of intertrial spacing. The first 2 groups were college students selected from extreme scorers on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and the third group was composed of hospitalized anxious patients. "Among the students, the high and low groups, tested under both delay and immediate conditions, showed no significant differences in their learning of the word-associate material. With the more novel and difficult false equations, however, the high anxiety Ss learned significantly less over all and showed a somewhat slower rate of learning from trial to trial. Among the patients, those tested under the delay condition performed about as well as the high-anxiety students, while those under the immediate condition learned a lesser amount both of the word and equation materials." 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Color versus form discrimination learning in 1-year-old infants.

A comparison of form and color discrimination learning in 48 Ss showed that none of the color-trained Ss reached criterion, whereas approximately half of the form-trained Ss did reach criterion. Analysis showed that, in contrast to Ss who were given color problems, Ss who were given form problems showed both an initial curiosity about changes in form and an ability to solve form problems. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance, cognition, and physiological responding in test anxiety.

Autonomic (skin conductance and resistance, heart rate, and heart rate variability), self-report (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and causal attributions of task performance), and performance (modified Stroop Color–Word Test and 8 difficult anagrams) measures of anxiety were collected from 36 test-anxious and 36 non-test-anxious (Test Anxiety Scale) female undergraduates in an analog testing situation under 3 experimental conditions. High-test-anxious (HTA) Ss performed more poorly and reported higher levels of anxious arousal and worry in the analog testing situation than low-test-anxious (LTA) Ss. Also, self-evaluations of test performance made by HTA Ss differed from those made by LTA Ss in being more negative and unrelated to actual test performance. However, HTA and LTA Ss showed virtually identical changes in electrodermal activity and heart rate in response to the stress of the testing situation. Only heart rate variability, which appeared to reflect differences in the cognitive and attentional responses of the test anxiety groups, successfully differentiated HTA and LTA Ss. Results support cognitive formulations of test anxiety and indicate that deficits in information processing associated with test anxiety do not result from maladaptive levels of autonomic arousal. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety as a predictor of behavioral therapy outcome for cancer chemotherapy patients.

Studied whether baseline anxiety levels are predictive of outcome on treatments designed to reduce the negative affect and conditioned nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy. 72 18–79 yr old patients classified as having low, moderate, or high anxiety received progressive muscle relaxation training, electromyograph (EMGH) biofeedback, and/or skin temperature biofeedback. Physiological, multiple affect adjective checklist, and postchemotherapy ratings were obtained during baseline, training, and follow-up sessions. Compared with moderate- and high-anxiety Ss, low-anxiety Ss reported less anxiety and depression before behavioral training but nonetheless exhibited significantly greater reductions in anxiety, depression, and diastolic blood pressure as a result of training. Baseline anxiety levels were not related to reduced nausea. Overall, these data suggest that cancer patients who have higher baseline levels of anxiety and who are perhaps most in need of an effective behavioral treatment may be the least likely to benefit from behavioral treatments aimed at reducing the distress associated with chemotherapy. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of extrinsic incentives on use of test anxiety as an anticipatory attributional defense: Playing it cool when the stakes are high.

Assessed the effect of extrinsic incentives on the use of test anxiety as a self-handicapping strategy. It was hypothesized that although reports of anxiety may be greater when such symptoms can serve a defensive function, this effect occurs only when extrinsic incentives are low and not under conditions of high extrinsic incentive. 84 male undergraduates anticipated taking a test of intellectual abilities and either were led to believe that test anxiety has no effect on test performance or were given no particular information about the relation between test anxiety and performance. Ss were offered either $5 or $25 for obtaining the highest score on the test. Consistent with predictions, no-information Ss reported greater test anxiety before the test than did those who believed that test anxiety was unrelated to performance, but only when the extrinsic incentive for performance was low. However, these Ss did not report greater cognitive interference or exhibit lower test scores than did Ss in other conditions. It is suggested that the defensive strategy used by these Ss consisted of altering perceptions of anxiety, rather than anxiety itself. Implications of the absence of self-handicapping under high incentive conditions are discussed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Relationships among manifest anxiety, response to stress, and the perception of autonomic activity.

Recorded the GSRs of a total of 48 male undergraduates with high or low anxiety levels (as measured by the MA scale), during exposure to a mild ego-involving stress or a nonstress condition. After an initial rest period, Ss in the stress condition were asked to identify their own "emotional responses" while monitored by a "lie detector." Results indicate that high-anxiety Ss showed a significant increase in GSR rate in the stress period when compared with low-anxiety Ss. Nonstress Ss showed no difference as a function of anxiety level. It is concluded that scores on the MA scale reflect "reactive" anxiety, the autonomic components of which are differentially elicited by ego-involving stress situations. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of anxiety level and psychological stress on verbal learning.

"It was predicted that under neutral conditions high anxiety (high drive) Ss would exhibit a performance superior to that of low anxiety (low drive) Ss on a paired-associate learning task with minimal intratask interference but that under conditions of psychological stress (report of inadequate prior performance) high anxiety Ss, due to the greater arousal of interfering extratask responses, would no longer exhibit the superiority found under neutral conditions. Results indicated that while the high anxiety Ss under neutral instructions were significantly superior to the low anxious, as predicted, and the Ss operating under stress were inferior to their neutral controls, the predicted interaction between anxiety level and stress was not found." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preservation of cross-modal transfer of a rate discrimination in the bushbaby (Galogo senegalensis) with lesions of posterior neocortex.

Assessed the effect of lesions of posterior neocortex, using a test method that permits the demonstration of cross-modal transfer in intact bushbabies. Eight Ss were trained to discriminate light flashes of 18/sec and 3/sec in a go-no-go shock avoidance task. On completion of training, 4 Ss received lesions of posterior neocortex by aspiration. After 6 wks both lesion and intact Ss were returned to training in the visual discrimination. On the day following criterion performance on the visual test, auditory clicks of the same rate and contingencies were substituted and maintained to criterion. All 8 Ss demonstrated rapid transfer, and the lesion Ss were not retarded as compared with intact Ss. The cross-modal transfer of a specific rate discrimination was thus preserved in the absence of posterior intersensory neocortex. Results are discussed in terms of a hypothetical subcortical system capable of the amodal coding of simple stimulus dimensions. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in response latency and response variability between high and low anxiety subjects in a flicker-fusion task.

The present research investigated the effect of anxiety on various psychophysical tasks. Ss high in anxiety (HA) and their low anxiety (LA) relatives were presented with a flicker-fusion task. It was predicted that HA Ss would show significantly more difficulty than the LA group at the point of threshold for flicker-fusion. HA Ss showed lower threshold to flicker, more variability and response alternation, therefore, increased difficulty in making decisions at the threshold values. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2HK55W. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masking and visual field effects on a lateralized rod-and-frame test.

Investigated whether laterality effects would be affected by poststimulus masking in a rod-and-frame test in which visual stimuli were presented to one side or the other of a central fixation point. 96 Ss (aged 18–28 yrs; 50% female) participated. For half the Ss, stimuli were followed by a blank screen; for the other half, stimuli were followed by a mask. An overall left visual field advantage (LVFA) was found in the task. An interaction of sex of Ss, masking conditions, and frame tilt was also found. Data showed that the sex by angle of frame interaction was significant when a mask was presented after the stimuli, but not when no mask followed the stimuli. Results suggest that the LVFA was only significant when a mask was presented after the stimuli. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social anxiety and the evaluation of negative interpersonal feedback.

Results of a study with 211 college students indicate that Ss high and moderate in anxiety perceived the same feedback as being more negative than did lows. In addition, high-anxiety Ss had a greater expectancy that others would evaluate them negatively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The discrepant repressor: Differentiation between low anxiety, high anxiety, and repression of anxiety by autonomic–facial–verbal patterns of behavior.

Examined the notion that personality questionnaires can be used to predict different styles of coping with anxiety, as expressed by individual differences in patterns of autonomic, verbal, and nonverbal reactions. In line with earlier modifications of the repression–sensitization concept, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS) were used to select 4 groups of 12 Ss each from a pool of 206 male university students in Germany: low-anxious Ss, repressors, high-anxious Ss, and defensive high-anxious Ss. Measures of autonomic arousal, facial activity, and self-reported affect were obtained during a potentially anxiety-arousing free-association task and during a number of control conditions, including an amusing film. Significant differences in baseline-corrected heart rate and self-reported anxiety as well as rated facial anxiety all indicated that repressors exhibited a discrepancy between low self-reported anxiety and high heart rate and facial anxiety; low anxious Ss reported an intermediate level of anxiety, although they showed low heart rate and facial anxiety; high-anxious Ss had consistently high values on all 3 variables; and the defensive high-anxious Ss showed an intermediate level of anxious responding. These group differences were specific to the task of freely associating to phrases of mixed (sexual, aggressive, neutral) content and to self-reported anxiety, indicating that they reflect individual differences in coping with anxiety. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of manifest anxiety and IQ on discrimination.

20 Ss were selected from a population of 400 high school students who had been given the Otis IQ test and the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety so that five of them fell into each of the following groups: (a) high IQ, high anxiety, (b) high IQ low anxiety, (c) low IQ, low anxiety, and (d) low IQ, high anxiety. The Ss were asked to rate 10 attitudinal concepts on each of 10 scales. The results were tabulated to determine the frequency with which each S used each step in the scale. It was found that intelligence, as measured by the Otis IQ test, does significantly relate to scale discrimination. High IQ Ss made more use of the whole scale. High and low anxiety Ss make equally fine discriminations along a graduated series. However, IQ and anxiety do appear to interact with regard to discrimination. In general, the effect of increased anxiety on high IQ Ss is to make them less discriminating. The reverse effect is found for low IQ Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned helplessness, test anxiety, and acknowledgment of contingencies.

72 undergraduates designated as high or low test anxious (Test Anxiety Questionnaire) received either controllable of uncontrollable noise in a typical helplessness induction. Half of them subsequently received an acknowledgment of contingencies in the induction task, and the other half did not. An anagram task was then administered. Test anxiety theory successfully predicted group differences in anagram performance: Only high-test-anxious Ss were debilitated by the helplessness induction. The effects of providing acknowledgment of contingencies proved ambiguous, but this may have been due to the wording of the acknowledgment and the susceptibility of high-test-anxious Ss to social dimensions of the task situation. Because of differences in terminology, learned helplessness theory has failed to take into account a large body of literature that has similarly employed experimenter-induced failure, and there are numerous competing explanations for impairments following a helplessness induction. Test anxiety theory suggests that the deficits underlying impaired performance are likely to be attentional in nature. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical findings and theoretical problems in the use of anxiety scales.

Research suggests that: (a) the performance of high anxious Ss is detrimentally affected by threatening conditions; (b) as task complexity increases the disadvantage of high to low anxious Ss increases; (c) correlations between the Taylor MA scale and intellectual measures are inconsistent, whereas measures of test anxiety correlate negatively with intellectual measures; (d) little relationship has been found between measures of anxiety and physiological indices. The methodological problems thought to be responsible for inconsistent findings are discussed. (128-item bibliogr.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)