Abstract
The present study examined the hypotheses that (a) there is a curvilinear relation between speech disruption and estimated uncertainty, and (b) there is no relation between speech disruption and levels of test anxiety. Ninety college undergraduates, classified on the basis of the Achievement Anxiety Test as high, medium, and low anxious, read aloud a set of passages ranging from a zero (most uncertain) to a seventh (least uncertain) order of statistical approximation to English. Speech disruption was scored in terms of a modification of Mahl's categories of non-Ah speech disturbances. An analysis of variance and trend analysis were used to test the hypotheses. The analyses yielded significant linear, quadratic and cubic components of the uncertainty trend, thus supporting the first hypothesis. A significant monotonic relationship was also found between levels of test anxiety and number of non-Ah disturbances. Thus, the second hypothesis was not confirmed. It was concluded that both uncertainty and anxiety play a role in the occurrence of speech disruption although a comparative evaluation of the relative influence of each is limited by the conditions of the experiment.
Published Version
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