Public Speaking State Anxiety Research Articles

A test of attention control theory in public speaking: cognitive load influences the relationship between state anxiety and verbal production

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the relationship between public-speaking state anxiety (PSA) and verbal communication performance when delivering a speech. In Study 1, participants delivered an extemporaneous five-minute classroom speech behind a lectern, and in Study 2, to increase cognitive load, participants delivered an extemporaneous five-minute classroom speech peripatetically. In line with attention control theory (ACT), anxiety and verbal performance were found to be unrelated under normal circumstances but inversely related under conditions of significant cognitive load. The project demonstrates the relevance of ACT in disentangling the impact of anxiety on verbal communication performance. An implication for public speakers is that anxiety is unlikely to affect language behavior in typical speaking settings.

The Relationships of Trait Anxiety, Audience Nonverbal Feedback, and Attributions to Public Speaking State Anxiety

This study investigated the relationships among trait anxiety, audience nonverbal feedback, attributions, and public speaking state anxiety. Fifty-nine (N = 59) undergraduate students randomly assigned to either a positive or negative condition of audience nonverbal feedback delivered an impromptu speech and completed a trait anxiety measure, state anxiety scale, and attributional questionnaire about audience nonverbal feedback. The results provided some support for a path model indicating that negative nonverbal feedback increased external attributions, which, in turn, increased state anxiety. Trait anxiety was not more predictive of state anxiety than nonverbal feedback.

A Model of Anxious Arousal for Public Speaking

With the goal of identifying the characteristics or traits students bring to the classroom that predispose them to panic when faced with the threat of presenting in front of an audience, this study introduced a subtype of public-speaking state anxiety—anxious arousal. Specifically, this study examined the extent to which trait anxiety and physiological reactivity predicted anxious arousal during a public-speaking presentation. When combined with trait anxiety, physiological reactivity accounted for 73.3% of anxious arousal. Suggestions for pedagogical and therapeutic practice are included.

Examining the Effect of Exposure Therapy on Public Speaking State Anxiety

Increased public speaking confidence is often cited as a major benefit for undergraduates taking the basic communication course. Several scholars have reported that the state anxiety of novice speakers declines progressively during performance, a phenomenon called within-session habituation. However, the contributions of these short-term reductions in fear to the development of confidence from one speech to the next, or between-sessions habituation, remain unknown. The current study examines brief repeated exposure to audiences as a strategy for creating habituation during public speaking performances in the basic course. One hundred forty undergraduate students enrolled in a required speech performance course participated in a quasi-experimental study in which course lab sections served as intact groups. Results were generally consistent with Foa's emotional processing theory. Implications for basic course pedagogy and suggestions for future research in this area are advanced.

Anticipatory Public Speaking State Anxiety as a Function of Body Sensations and State of Mind

This study examined the relationships among a public speaker's body sensations, state of mind, and anticipatory public speaking state anxiety. A negative relationship was found to exist between speaker state of mind and anticipatory public speaking anxiety, and a positive relationship was found between speaker body sensations and anticipatory public speaking anxiety. Moreover, speaker state of mind and body sensations combined to predict anticipatory public speaking anxiety.

Physical Symptoms of Discomfort Associated with Worry about Giving a Public Speech

While reports of anxiety about public speaking are common, the specific ways in which individual speakers are impacted varies considerably. Researchers of public speaking state anxiety have found support for the operation of Gray’s (1995a) comparator theory of emotion. The present study extends this perspective by examining the association of higher mental processes (worry) and body sensations. In the present study, conscious rumination and uncomfortable physical sensations were found to coincide during the anticipation milestone, i.e., approximately 1 minute before presenting a public speech. This finding supports the operation of Gray’s comparator theory. Recommendations for future research that focus on recursive patterns of body sensations and worry are advanced.

Public speaking state anxiety as a function of trait anxiety and reactivity mechanisms

Over the past several decades, communication scholars have focused on the interesting relationship between state and trait anxiety. Generally, they have been able to account for about 50% of the variance between these two forms of anxiety. In the present study, sensitization during the initial minute of speech performance was shown to be directly related to speaker state anxiety, whereas habituation (adaptation) was inversely related to speech anxiety, suggesting a maladaptive component of psychological arousability. When combined with trait anxiety, maladaptive and hypersensitive psychological arousal accounted for 72 % of public speaking state anxiety. Consequently, combining psychological reactivity and trait anxiety provides an effective model for describing and predicting speech state anxiety in public speakers. Recommendations for therapeutic and pedagogical practices are suggested.

Patterns of state anxiety in listening performance

Although public speaking state anxiety is understood to be a dynamic phenomenon of patterns which continually shift before, during, and after performance, researchers have not investigated patterns of anxiety in listening. Based upon current information processing perspectives, it is argued that state anxiety levels should differ concomitantly with variations in cognitive load during listening performance. In the present study, anxiety levels were observed to produce a within‐performance pattern that contrasts markedly with patterns observed for public speaking performance. Decreases in affect for the listening task were observed, along with an interesting pattern of correlations between anxiety and listening performance.

Evaluation sensitivity and physical sensations of stress as components of public speaking state anxiety

According to Gray's (1991) reinforcement sensitivity theory, state anxiety is triggered by situations involving threat or punishment and involves sensations in the body often described as discomfort in the chest or stomach. In this study, physical sensations of speaker discomfort experienced during public speaking and a measure of punishment sensitivity (fear of negative evaluation) served as predictors of state anxiety during speaking. Participants presented five‐minute informative speeches to classmates. Immediately following these presentations, speakers completed the Spielberger STAI (A‐State) and the Body Sensations Questionnaire. Fear of negative evaluation and symptoms of physical discomfort accounted for 57% of the variance in public speaking state anxiety. These findings are consistent with the reinforcement sensitivity model of state anxiety. Suggestions for future research and pedagogical implications are presented.

Audience‐perceived anxiety patterns of public speakers

Gray's neurological theory of anxiety (1982, 1990; Gray & McNaughton, 2000) predicts that state anxiety will decrease with continuous exposure to a fear arousing stimulus. Previous studies of psychological and physiological state anxiety patterns during public speaking have reported a pattern of progressively decreasing anxiety levels consistent with this phenomenon, known as habituation. In the current report, the extent to which the state anxiety behaviors of speakers conform to the habituation pattern is examined. In the first of two studies, 30 novice speakers presented informative speeches to audiences of 18 to 20 fellow students. These speeches were videotaped and replayed in their entirety for observers (N=30) who rated the severity of each performer's speech anxiety behaviors. In the second study, each videotaped presentation was divided into one‐minute segments and presented in random order to a new set of observers (N=25). Procedures in the second study were designed to control for rater expectations that state anxiety would decline over time. Overall, behavioral measures of public speaking state anxiety displayed a continually declining pattern associated with habituation.

Worry as a function of public speaking state anxiety type

Although most speakers become progressively more comfortable while presenting public speeches, a process called habituation, many others experience increased psychological discomfort, usually during the first moments of their presentations. Previous researchers refer to this phenomenon as sensitization. One explanation for these pattern differences is that excessive worrying disrupts the processing of emotional stimuli thereby contributing to sensitization. In the present study, 60 speakers, 30 of each pattern type, present five‐minute informative speeches to audiences composed of 20 peers plus an instructor. Immediately following the presentations, speakers indicate the degree to which they made negative self‐statements while speaking. The results demonstrate that sensitizers report more worrisome thoughts during public speaking than habituators. In the present study, differences in pattern type account for 39.6% of the variance in worry during public speaking.

Behavioral inhibition and the communication of public speaking state anxiety

Researchers studying the communication of public speaking anxiety have reported that audiences consistently underestimate the state anxiety of public speakers and that speaker behavior, rather than audience decoding skills, are primarily responsible for the discrepancy. In the present study, behavioral inhibition is advanced as explanation of this phenomenon. Analyses of variance for trends revealed an inverse linear relationship between state anxiety level and audience decoding efficiency. Behavioral assessments of speaker inhibition and rigidity, however, were positively related to state anxiety levels. These findings are consistent with the operation of behavioral inhibition within Buck's readout theory of emotion. Implications are advanced for future research and pedagogy.

Reduction in public speaking state anxiety during performance as a function of sensitization processes

Recently, scholars have suggested that biological factors, such as temperament, influence human social behavior, particularly in the formation of traits, such as communication apprehension. Despite progress in this area, the relationship between temperament and states, such as speech anxiety, remains unclear. Theories of temperament predict that the rate at which subjects habituate to stress varies inversely with the degree to which they are sensitized during initial confrontation with stress‐producing stimuli. The inverse relationship between habituation and sensitization, in the context of public speaking state anxiety, is examined in this report. In two separate studies, using both physiological and psychological measures of state anxiety, the inverse relationship between sensitization and habituation was confirmed. Specifically, sensitization accounted for 69.1% and 50.3% of the variance in physiological and psychological habituation, respectively.

Public speaking state anxiety and anxiety sensitivity as predictors of self‐perceived speaker competence

Communication researchers have examined trait and state anxiety and their effects on public speaking, linking anxiety to communicator competence. In this study, the effects of anxiety sensitivity and state anxiety on self‐perceived speaker competence are investigated. Results indicate that the inclusion of anxiety sensitivity increases the predictive value of reported state anxiety levels in predicting levels of communicator competence. Implications for the inclusion of anxiety sensitivity in future research are suggested.

Milestones of anticipatory public speaking anxiety

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the levels of anticipatory public speaking state and trait anxiety at three pre‐performance milestones or significant events: (1) the moment when the public speech was assigned in class, (2) the mid‐point of a laboratory session during which the speeches were being prepared, and (3) the moment immediately preceding formal presentation of the speech to the class. The results indicate that both state and trait anxiety levels during these events were ordered in a quadratic, v‐shaped episodic pattern as follows: the highest level of anticipatory anxiety occurred just before speaking, the second highest level occurred at the time the assignment was announced and explained, and the lowest level was measured during the time students were preparing their speeches.

Behavioral inhibition and the attribution of public speaking state anxiety

This study applies H. J. Eysenck's (1967) theoretical perspective on the development of anxiety to explain audience perceptions of public speakers. Specifically, the effects of social conditioning, particularly punishment, and the relative conditionability of an individual's nervous system combine to predict behavioral responses to state anxiety. Speakers presented five‐minute speeches under normal classroom conditions, were videotaped, and speaker anxiety behaviors and audience‐observed speaker anxiety were assessed by teams of raters. The hypothesis that behavioral rigidity and inhibition are significant, additive predictors of audience perceived speaker state anxiety was confirmed. The authors discuss these findings in light of treatment strategies, such as flooding and systematic desensitization, designed to counteract behavioral inhibition.

Communication apprehension and implicit memories of public speaking state anxiety

The strength or weakness of the nervous system determines, in part, the nature of human responses to aversive external stimuli. Weak nervous systems, as demonstrated by several theorists and researchers, are implicated in the development of social anxiety traits such as communication apprehension. Mechanisms underlying implicit memory are elaborated and the stability of reconstructed emotional memories of public speaking state anxiety during performance is linked to public speaking apprehension.

Contagion theory and the communication of public speaking state anxiety

Previous empirical research has shown that speech state anxiety is communicated from a speaker to audience members, at a nominal level, in public speaking settings. This article reports on research into the communication of speech state anxiety between adjacent speakers in the speaking order. Based on classical response contagion theory, the researchers predicted a positive relationship. The findings support that expectation, suggesting that public speaking state anxiety is contagious. The article discusses possible consequences of these findings and advances suggestions for future research.

Public speaking state anxiety as a function of selected situational and predispositional variables

A recent stream of studies indicates that variables commonly assumed to be transient causes of public speaking state anxiety are more trait‐like than situational in nature. In the present study, dispositional and situational versions of novelty, conspicuousness, and subordinate status, in addition to a measure of public speaking (trait) apprehension, were used to predict state anxiety in response to a public speaking task. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that (1) trait versions of the variables significantly and meaningfully predicted state anxiety, (2) situational versions of the variables contributed little to the prediction and (3) public speaking apprehension (trait) scores were the single best and only significant predictor of public speaking state anxiety. Moreover, a single‐predictor model, employing public speaking trait apprehension scores as the independent variable, was the most efficient model. These findings raise instructional questions regarding the advisability of per...