Anxiety, as a personality variable, has been shown to be related to learning. The present study investigated the relationship between test anxiety and silent reading gains as measured by standardized tests of vocabulary and comprehension skills. It was hypothesized that high test anxiety: (a) has an inverse relationship to vocabulary gain and (b) has an inverse relationship to comprehension gain. Anxiety, in this study, is assumed to be an unpleasant emotional state with physiological concomitants which are consciously experienced by the child and to be related to test and test-like Within this framework, anxiety becomes a hypothetical construct having predictable consequences in terms of its effect on gain in silent reading as measured by standardized tests. Other researchers, drawing from the work of Hull and Spence, have viewed anxiety as an operational measure of drive-level. Ruebush (1963, p. 474) feels that although these definitions may differ ... they demonstrate how the construct of anxiety may be useful in the systematic analysis and prediction of children's behavior in learning and problem-solving situations. Many recent studies, using the Sarason Test Anxiety Scale for Children (Sarason, and others, 1960), have examined the relationship of anxiety to achievement and intelligence. Sarason (1963) and Cox (1962) found that anxiety relates negatively to school achievement. Others (Feldhusen and Klausmeier, 1962; Waite, and others, 1958; Sarason, 1961) have found a negative correlation between anxiety and IQ. The most obvious conclusion from these data would be that highly anxious children are less intelligent and/or lower achievers. One might argue that children who are less intelligent and lower achievers deal less effectively with their environment and, therefore, acquire higher levels of anxiety. However, an alternative hypothesis would suggest that depressed test scores result from the interfering effects of anxiety. If this were the case, it might be well to question the validity of both the intelligence and achievement test scores of highly anxious children (Sarason, and others, 1960).