The role of test anxiety in absolute and relative metacomprehension accuracy

Abstract

Test anxiety reduces test performance and decreases students’ confidence. We examined the relationship of prediction and posttest confidence judgements for self and others with multiple choice and essay test performance. High test-anxious participants (as measured by the Test Anxiety Scale) had poorer test performance on both multiple choice and essay tests than did low test-anxious participants, and high test-anxious participants gave lower judgements for themselves but not for others. Absolute metacomprehension accuracy as measured by the difference between confidence and performance showed a large degree of overconfidence on essay tests and much less overconfidence on multiple choice tests, but this effect did not interact with test anxiety. However, relative metacomprehension accuracy, as measured by intrasubject correlations between judgements and performance across texts, was higher for high text-anxious participants than for low test-anxious participants. Test anxiety may serve as a cue for how well material has been learned for high test-anxious participants.