| This study was undertaken to examine the central tenets of the processing efficiency theory (PET) with more direct measures of attention and effort. Participants were placed into either higher and lower trait anxiety groups and required to concurrently perform a simulated driving task while responding to one of four target LED's (which could only be differentiated by a goal directed saccade) upon presentation of a valid or invalid cue located in the central or peripheral visual field. Eye movements, cortical activity and dual task performance were recorded under two conditions: baseline, and competition, where cognitive anxiety was induced by an instructional set. Findings indicated that, while there was little change in driving performance from Session 1 to Session 2, response time was reduced for the lower anxious group with an increase for the higher anxious group in the competitive session. In addition, search rate was increased and a reduction in P3 amplitude occurred for both groups during the competitive session, which revealed a reduction in processing efficiency as indexed by state anxiety. Implications of this study provide a more comprehensive and complex account of the theory, and suggest that increases in cognitive anxiety result in a reduction of processing efficiency with little change in performance effectiveness. |
