Experimental Study Of Attentional Quality In Test Anxiety Individuals

Test anxiety was conceptualized as a situation-specific form of anxiety. Trait anxiety is a relatively stable condition of the individual,and state anxiety is considered as a temporary state of anxiety. Test anxiety as a negative emotional response,may have an impact on the quality of attention,thereby affecting the academic performance of the students,but there is no uniform conclusion that the effect is inhibiting or facilitatting.Three tests were involved in current research. Applying the cancellation test,alternating tasks paradigm,the dot probe task, the attentional quality(attention stability,the shifting of attention, selectivity of attention) of test anxiety individuals was explored with the materials of word pairs(test anxiety-specific words,generic threatening words and neutral words). The Cognitive Test Axiety Scale and State-Trait Axiety Inventory (STAI) were applied in the study. Participants were selected from 966 freshman,and divided into high,medium or low test anxiety group.The result showed that:First,the high test anxiety subjects'attention stability index was the least;The high arousal group's attention stability index was significantly less than low arousal group.Second,the medium test anxiety subjects'switching cost was the least;The medium arousal group's switching cost was significantly less than the other two groups.Third,the high test anxiety individuals were avoidance of test anxiety-specific words at the exposure duration of 100ms;The low test anxiety individuals were vigilant to the generic threatening words at the exposure duration of 100ms and 500ms;Besides,there was no obvious attentional bias.The high arousal group was avoidance of test anxiety-specific words at the exposure duration of 100ms;The medium arousal group was avoidance of test anxiety-specific words at the exposure duration of 500ms;Besides,there was no obvious attentional bias.