Expectancy and Self-Focused Attention: Experimental Support for the Self-Regulation Model of Test Anxiety

Abstract

In an attempt to evaluate the self-regulation model of test anxiety, the effects of outcome expectancy, self-focused attention, and test anxiety were examined with regard to the performance of college student subjects. Forty high-test-anxious and 40 low-test-anxious subjects received prior success (positive expectancy) or failure (negative expectancy) feedback on a word association task that was presented as predictive of performance on verbal achievement tasks. Half the subjects then completed the subsequent achievement tasks in the presence of a mirror to induce self-focused attention. A triple interaction was found on two of the three dependent measures: among test-anxious subjects with induced self-focused attention, significant performance facilitation occurred under conditions of positive expectancy and significant performance decrements occurred under conditions of negative expectancy. Failure appeared to induce a reactance effect among low-test-anxious subjects. The results are consistent with tho...