| Test anxiety is a mental state characterized by the worry about the evaluation result,accompanied by defensive or evasive behavior and different levels of emotional response.In recent years,test anxiety occupies a relatively high proportion in college students and has an increasing trend year by year.Test anxiety has become an important factor affecting college students’ academic performance,leading to weariness.And even some college students commit suicide because they can not bear the pressure from tests.According to the definition of test anxiety,test anxiety is induced by the assessment situation.Although there have been a lot of discussions on the inducing factors of test anxiety in recent years,they are more focused on the content of stimulus clues,and the use of general negative stimuli rather than test related clues for individuals with test anxiety as materials.It is worth noting that researchers have found that the clarity of cues can also affect the emotional characteristics of stimuli.Individuals with fuzzy aversion are more likely to associate fuzzy stimuli with threatening cues in anxious individuals.As an important perceptual feature,whether the clarity of stimuli will have an impact on the emotions of individuals with test anxiety remains to be further discussed.Secondly,the level of working memory will affect the processing of fuzzy information and the reduction of working memory level will increase the possibility of anxiety.However,it is still unclear how the level of working memory affects the anxiety induced by fuzzy stimulus.Exploring the effects of stimulus articulateness and working memory on test anxiety can not only enhance the understanding of the occurrence and development of test anxiety,but also provide a more scientific basis for the early prevention and intervention of test anxiety individuals.Therefore,the purpose of this study is as follows:(1)To explore the influence of clear and fuzzy test-related clues on individual emotions of test anxiety;(2)To explore whether the level of working memory can regulate the influence of clear and fuzzy stimuli on the level of test anxiety.In experiment 1,college students whose TAS score ≤12 points were defined as the normal group;College students with TAS≥20 were classified into the test anxiety group.There are 33 and 32 students in the two groups respectively.The emotionevoked paradigm combined with galvanic skin data was used to investigate the effects of the content and clarity of stimulus cues on the anxiety of individuals with test anxiety.The results are as follows:(1)Test-related pictures induced individual anxiety significantly higher than neutral pictures,indicating that the stimulus content will have an impact on individual emotion of test anxiety.(2)In the high test anxiety group,there was no significant difference in the level of anxiety induced by testrelated stimuli under clear and fuzzy conditions,and no significant difference in the level of anxiety induced by negative stimuli,but the level of anxiety induced by neutral stimuli after fuzzy was significantly greater than that of clear neutral stimuli;In the low test anxiety group,there was no significant difference in the level of anxiety induced by the three types of clear and fuzzy pictures.It shows that stimulus articulation is an important perceptual feature and one of the important factors affecting the emotion of individuals with high test anxiety.(3)When clear pictures were presented,the change rate of electrodermal level in individuals with high test anxiety was significantly higher than that with low test anxiety;When the fuzzy images were presented,the change rate of electrodermal level in the individuals with high test anxiety was still significantly higher than that in the group with low test anxiety.It shows that compared with normal individuals,even after fuzzy cues,the anxiety level of test anxious individuals is still higher.In experiment 2,47 test anxiety subjects were selected,including 22 in the control group and 25 in the experimental group.On the basis of experiment 1,the emotion-evoked paradigm,emotional working memory paradigm and physiological measurement were used to investigate the effects of working memory level on different fuzzy stimuli and anxiety.The results showed that:(1)In the pre-test,there was no significant difference in the change rate of electrodermal level between the experimental group and the control group.However,after the improvement of individual working memory level,the change rate of electrodermal level induced by picture stimulation in the post-test was significantly different between the two groups,and the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group.It shows that the improvement of working memory level can alleviate the influence of various stimuli on the level of individual test anxiety.(2)When clear pictures were presented,there was no significant difference in the change rate of electrodermal level between the experimental group and the control group in the pre-test.After the improvement of individual working memory level,the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group in the post-test;When fuzzy pictures were presented,there was no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in the pre-test.After the improvement of individual working memory level,the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group in the post-test.This indicates that for individuals with test anxiety,the improvement of working memory level can not only alleviate the anxiety induced by clear stimulus,but also reduce the anxiety induced by fuzzy stimulus.In summary,the main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)Compared with normal individuals,fuzzy stimulus can induce higher anxiety experience in test anxious individuals;(2)In test anxious individuals,fuzzy cues also induce higher anxiety levels than neutral stimuli;(3)The improvement of working memory can alleviate the influence of fuzzy cues on the anxiety level of test anxious individuals. |
