The “mirror” and the “mask”: Self-focused attention, evaluation anxiety, and the recognition of psychological implications

Abstract

It was predicted that attention focused on the self would interfere with performance on a task that requires recognizing the psychological implications of word associations. In particular, it was expected that the combination of a high level of test anxiety or self-consciousness and experimental testing conditions (i.e., instructions about task importance, unveiling of a mirror, and request for permission to videotape) would produce especially poor performance. Results revealed a main effect of testing condition such that subjects in the experimental condition were less vigilant and less successful in their performance than were subjects in the control condition. The results are discussed in terms of Scheibe’s (1979) concept of the interpersonal prediction mode of sagacity and the “mirror” as a tool for avoiding prediction.