The Interactive Effects of Cognitive Learning Strategy Training and Test Anxiety on Paired-Associate Learning

AbstractPrevious researchers have generally concluded that high test-anxious students typically perform more poorly than low test-anxious students on cognitively demanding tasks. The subjects, 90 fourth-grade students, were assessed as either high or low test anxious. Students within each anxiety condition were then randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: imagery training, sentence elaboration training, or placebo control. Following treatment, all students were tested on a paired-associate learning (PAL) task and a second anxiety measure. Results indicated that students trained to use either imagery or sentence elaboration enhanced their ability to learn PAL test lists and lessened their self-reported test anxiety , as compared to control group students. In addition, imagery training was superior to sentence elaboration training in helping high test-anxious students reduce the debilitating effects of test anxiety on performance and score as well as low test-anxious students on a PAL test.