| Abstract: | 40 college students were selected as high and 40 as low in anxiety (IPAT Anxiety Scale). Ss judged the horizontal plane while viewing a specially designed room (Leaf Room) through aniseikonic lenses. Groups of Ss were subdivided and provided either task or threat orientation to the perceptual procedure. High-anxious in comparison with low-anxious Ss required more time to recognize the perceptual distortion produced by aniseikonic lenses, and they estimated a smaller degree of distortion. Thus high anxiety appeared to retard ability to shift from familiar to unfamiliar but veridical percepts. The effects of ego threat were less clear but seemed to relate to certain inverse reaction tendencies present among high anxious Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
