Effects of Cue-Controlled Relaxation, A Placebo Treatment, and no Treatment on Changes in Self-Reported and Psychophysiological Indices of Test Anxiety among College Students.

Thirty-three test-anxious college students were exposed either to cue-con-trolled relaxation (based on progressive relaxation), to pseudotherapy, or to no treatment. The effects of cue-controlled relaxation failed to exceed those of the placebo treatment or those of no treatment. This was true for both self-report measures of test anxiety and psychophysiological indices of arousal during test taking. These results show, unambiguously, that procedural and measurement boundaries do exist within which cue-controlled relaxation is ineffective as a treatment for test anxiety among college students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]