Test anxiety and performance in problem-solving situations.

The article presents information on test anxiety and performance in problem-solving situations. In this paper three experiments are reported which bear upon the question of the effects of test anxiety and the interactive effects of anxiety, task difficulty, and failure stress on performance in situations involving, primarily, the manipulation of verbal responses. Taken together, these experiments were designed to test certain findings which have emerged from several investigations of these variables in situations involving the acquisition of verbal responses. The response interference interpretation assumes that anxiety test score is indicative of both drive level and the presence of internal responses to anxiety. Taken together, the results of these experiments point to a number of questions whose answers are necessary for an adequate understanding of the effects of anxiety on performance. Correlates of test anxiety and the interaction of test anxiety with task and situational factors were investigated with tasks involving response manipulation.