Effects of Rigidity and Anxiety on Pursuit Rotor Performance

Abstract
Rigidity has been linked to reactive inhibition and manifest anxiety to drive. The possible influence of these personality factors and their interaction on pursuit-rotor performance was investigated. High-rigid Ss and low-rigid Ss were divided further into high-anxious Ss and low-anxious Ss ( ns = 15). All Ss received 20 distributed (20 sec. work, 30 sec. rest) acquisition trials immediately followed by 30 relatively massed trials (20 sec. work, 5 sec. rest). The trend analyses showed ( p = .01) that performance was a function of the difference between anxiety levels, with neither rigidity nor the interaction components approaching statistical significance. Low-anxious Ss were immediately superior in acquiring the skill and in maintaining it under massed conditions.

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