Test Performance as a Function of Anxiety, Instructor and Instructions

Abstract

ALTHOUGH psychologists have for years used college classes as a source of subjects for their ex periments, few of their studies have been concern ed with factors influencing the performance of stu dents in the classroom. The present study follows the lead of McKeachie (2) who attempts to relieve student anxiety in examinations by allowing them to make on the questions in multiple choice examinations. McKeachie views anxiety in examinations as the state of being in a threatening situation from which one cannot immediately escape (2). Students begin an examination with more or less anxiet y due to their uncertainty regarding the outcome for the test coupled with their strong desire to a c h ieve a good grade. During the course of the examination, they are almost certain to encounter questions that are ambiguous to them, or difficult. McKeachie reas sons that as students proceed with the examination, either the anxiety aroused by failed items (am biguous, too difficult) may interfere with their sub sequent performance on the questions they encoun ter, or it may lead, to use Maier's term, to frus tration-instigated (non-goal directed) behavior rath er than to motivated problem solving; i. e. , goal directed behavior. McKeachie, Pollie, and Speisman (2) report that when subjects are instructed to feel free to make any about the items in the space provid ed, they make significantly higher scores than when they are told not to make any comments or when they are allowed to express their feelings a bout various items but forbidden to make any other comments. Sarason et al have designed a s c a le to measure attitudes and feelings of anxiety toward various testing situations. Sarason presents a Hullian ex planation of anxiety. Anxiety is considered as a learned drive with the characteristics of a strong stimulus. When anxiety has been learned as a re sponse to situations involving intellectual achieve ment (e. g., test situations), two types of responses