The performance of Ss of differing anxiety levels on a word association task under 2 instructional conditions was questioned. The two sets of instructions used . . . differed in that one set informed S, prior to the word association task, he was about to take a personality test, whereas the other set of instructions was neutral. These instructions and the anxiety measures were then related (a) to S's ability to remember word associations he had given and (b) to the agreement of S's responses with those of normative group . . ‥ The results were discussed in terms of an interfering response interpretation of anxiety.” 15 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)