An analysis of the nature and effects of test anxiety: Cognitive, behavioral, and physiological components

Abstract

This study investigated the nature and effects of test anxiety in terms of behavioral, cognitive, and physiological responses in an academic testing situation. Three high test-anxious and three low test-anxious female subjects were selected from a sample of 239 undergraduates on the basis of extreme scores on the Test Anxiety Scale and average scores on the General Anxiety Scale. Physiological, self-report, and cognitive-behavioral measures were obtained. Results indicated that the so-called low-anxious subjects were aroused during testing and appeared to view their arousal as facilitative. High-anxious subjects, on the other hand, labeled their arousal as debilitative. Analysis of the self-statement data revealed that all three low-anxious subjects reported approximately two task-facilitating statements for each task-debilitating response, while for the high-anxious subjects the ratio was one to one. These findings would suggest that it may be more productive to train high test-anxious students to relabel arousal as facilitative and use it to increase and maintain on-task responses rather than attempt to reduce arousal via relaxation techniques.