The Effect of Test Anxiety on Attention and Memory Skills in Undergraduate Students

The effects of high levels of test anxiety on attention and memory skills were examined. Twenty-four undergraduate students answered questionnaires measuring their level of test anxiety, performed cognitive tasks measuring attention through a modified version of the Stroop task, and were assessed for hits and false alarms in a paradigm designed to evoke both neutral (e.g., “sweet”), and anxiety-related (e.g., “test”) false memories. Results indicated test anxiety had a negative impact on performance scores for high test-anxious individuals over low test-anxious individuals, though only on some cognitive measures. Individuals with higher levels of test anxiety displayed slower times on attention-measuring tasks than low-anxious individuals, and also were more apt to falsely remember memories related to anxiety. However, high-anxious individuals showed equivalent performance to low-anxious individuals on other attention-measuring tasks, recall of neutral false memories, and correct hits. Most prominent researchers in the area of educational practice view test anxiety as a trait: a relatively stable personality characteristic that prompts an individual to react to threatening situations with some264 Chrestomathy: Volume 1, 2002 times debilitating psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses (Hancock, 2001). Among these responses, the psychological effects on attention and memory have received much attention. Anxiety has been associated with cognitive interference on a wide range of cognitive tasks (MacLeod, 1996). High test-anxious individuals have been shown to report more intrusive thoughts and lower test performance relative to low test-anxious individuals (Blankstein, Toner and Flett, 1989). Similarly, high test-anxious individuals have consistently scored lower in tests of free (uncued) recall of memorized material (Hembree, 1988). Eysenck (as cited in Dutke and Stober, 2001) formulated one possible hypothesis for this relationship between a high level of test anxiety and lowered cognitive performance. According to Eysenck, restriction in working memory capacity is responsible for the decrements in cognitive performance of highly test-anxious individuals. In test situations these individuals encounter task-irrelevant thoughts, such as worries and concerns about self-evaluative aspects of failure, which partially occupy working memory capacity. According to this interference model of test anxiety, anxiety disturbs the recall of prior learning and thus degrades performance (Hembree, 1988). In general, interference models are most applicable to complex tasks rather than to easy tasks, because in easy tasks the remaining memory capacity may suffice to fulfill task requirements (Dutke and Stober, 2001). The responses to high levels of test anxiety have especially important implications in the educational setting. Identifying factors such as test anxiety that influence student achievement and motivation to learn in the classroom continues to be a goal of education researchers (Eggen and Kauchak, 1999). Hembree (1988) integrated the results of 562 studies via meta-analysis to show the nature, effects, and treatment of academic test anxiety. Hembree reported that test anxiety and performance are significantly related at grade three and above. High levels of test anxiety peak between grades three and five, remain fairly constant through high school, and are lower in college. This test anxiety can result in impaired performance in the classroom. Hill and Wigfield (1984) reported studies with correlations up to -.60 between test anxiety and achievement, suggesting that anxiety and achievement Sullivan: Test Anxiety, Attention and Memory 265 share significant variance. High test-anxious individuals have an increased likelihood to perform poorly if a task is to be evaluated. Studies by both Maehr and Midgley (1991) and Pintrich and Schrauben (1992) have discovered the impact of test anxiety on students’ performance is often influenced by the evaluation practices of the classroom teacher. In stressful conditions, as opposed to game-like conditions, high test-anxious children functioned poorly when expected to achieve, but low-anxious children performed well in this environment (Hembree, 1988). In developing a measurement for gauging the level of test anxiety, Sarason (1978) devised the Test Anxiety Scale. This measure is used to determine a level of test anxiety among college-age students. It is typically administered to large groups of college students. Sarason determined that individuals with high test anxiety exhibited the following cognitions when facing an evaluative task: a) the situation is seen as difficult, challenging, and threatening; b) the individual sees himself or herself as ineffective in handling, or inadequate to, the task at hand; c) the individual focuses on undesirable consequences of personal inadequacy; d) self-deprecatory preoccupations are strong and interfere or compete with task-relevant cognitive activity; e) the individual expects and anticipates failure and loss of regard by others. Given the paucity of information on the effects of test anxiety, and the strong impact it has on the educational domain, the present study examined whether or not high test-anxious individuals would show cognitive impairments on attention and/or memory skills. In accordance with Eysenck’s interference model of test anxiety, it was hypothesized that high test-anxious individuals would encounter taskirrelevant thoughts that would partially occupy working memory capacity and leading to a decreased amount of recall. Similarly, it was hypothesized that high test-anxious individuals would have their attention drawn away from the task at hand, and focus instead on their worries and concerns. Therefore, the high test-anxious individuals were hypothesized to show cognitive impairments on tests of attention relative to low test-anxious individuals. In sum, it was expected that high test-anxious individuals would show lower performance scores on attention and memory tasks compared to low test-anxious individuals. 266 Chrestomathy: Volume 1, 2002