ERP Evidence for Inhibitory Control Deficits in Test-Anxious Individuals.

Wenpei Zhang,Renlai Zhou,Alain De Beuckelaer,Lirong Chen

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00645

Abstract

Introduction: Individuals with test anxiety [i.e., high test anxiety (HTA)] always treat tests/examinations as a potential threat. This cognitive mode impairs these individuals’ ability of inhibitory control and leads to a high level of anxiety. However, characterizing aspects of HTA’s impaired inhibitory control ability are unclear and need to be studied. Methods: Forty-six participants were recruited and divided into a HTA (N = 26) and low test anxiety (LTA; i.e., healthy control; N = 20) group. Self-reports (Test Anxiety Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for negative emotions) were obtained. An emotional Stroop (ES) task and a numerical Stroop (NS) task, causing different types of interferences, were used for assessing the emotional and cognitive aspects of attentional control ability (behavioral data). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were registered to further assess processing stages related to different aspects of attentional control ability. Results: Compared with the LTA group, the HTA group has inhibitory control deficits of both emotional (see ERP components P1-P2-N2 and P3) and cognitive (see ERP component P3) interference. Compared with the LTA group, the HTA doesn't have lower accuracy in neither ES nor NS but displays longer reaction times only in ES. Additionally, the HTA group’s ES results also show that (1) the degree of emotional interference indicates the level of an individual’s anxiety, and (2) the ERP component P2 may serve as an index of the level of test anxiety. Conclusion: HTA individuals have extensive inhibitory deficits for both emotional and cognitive aspects; however, impairment impacts more on emotional aspects than on cognitive aspects. Additionally, as compared to NS, the negative impact of more impaired processing stages on task performance is more substantial in ES.

Highlights

Individuals with test anxiety [i.e., high test anxiety (HTA)] always treat tests/ examinations as a potential threat
Additional simple effect analysis shows that (a) for each group, significant reaction time (RT) differences exist between the three conditions (HTA: F(1,43) = 24.225, p < .001, η2 = .530; low test anxiety (LTA): F(1,43) = 39.288, p < .001, η2 = .646) and (b) for each condition, no significant RT difference is observed between the HTA and the LTA group (Neutral: F(1,44) = 1.776, p = .090, η2 = .039, Congruent: F(1,44) = 2.294, p = .137, η2 = .050, Incongruent: F(1,44) = .066, p = .799, η2 = .001)
emotional Stroop (ES) Results In ES, longer RTs for test-related threatening words indicate that (a) HTA individuals show an inhibitory control deficit if they are exposed to a test-related threatening interference [see similar evidence, [11,12,13]] and (b) HTA individuals allocate extra attentional resources to process the threatening information instead of focusing on the task at hand

Summary

Introduction

Individuals with test anxiety [i.e., high test anxiety (HTA)] always treat tests/ examinations as a potential threat. Worry caused by negative cognition stemming from an exam’s appraisal leads to anxiety and elevates the individual’s vulnerability to anxious cues This vulnerability increases the degree of interference from exam/test-related information, which is unrelated to completing the task (i.e., task unrelated information), and decreases the ability of inhibitory control [9, 10]. In comparison to low test anxiety (LTA) individuals, high test anxiety (HTA) individuals tend to show higher interference by test-related information than by neutral (i.e., including test-unrelated) information [11,12,13], an interference that may affect the allocation of attentional resources during the processing of task stimuli [13] This interference may reduce the attentional resources used for the task at hand, impairing the individual’s task performance and increasing the level of anxiety in the individual [14, 15]

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Conclusion