Factorial study of component procedures in desensitization treatment of test anxiety among college students.

Abstract

Heart rate and skin conductance during testing were obtained from 38 highly test-anxious college students before and after they were exposed to one of four experimental treatments and from 9 low test-anxious students who were not exposed to any treatment. The treatments varied factorially the major procedural components of systematic desensitization by crossing graded versus ungraded visualization of a standard test-anxiety hierarchy with the presence versus the absence of concurrent instructions for muscular relaxation. Heart rate during testing was not a correlate of reported test anxiety. Skin conductance during testing was a correlate of reported anxiety, but it was not influenced robustly by any of the experimental treatments. There was some evidence of sensitization when graded imaginal rehearsal was not paired with relaxation.