TEST ANXIETY AND MOTOR PERFORMANCE: THE ROLE OF MUSCULAR AND ATTENTIONAL DEMANDS*
- 6 April 1987
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in International Journal of Psychology
- Vol. 22 (2-3) , 165-178
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00207598708246775
Abstract
In experiment 1, the attentional demands of two fine (finger movements) and two gross (arm movements) motor tasks were empirically determined. In experiment 2, the effects of test condition (stress) and anxiety trait on motor performance were analyzed. A significant interactive effect appeared: the performance of high‐trait‐anxious subjects was impaired under evaluative conditions in fine and/or attentionally demanding tasks, but not in gross and attentionally simple tasks. As test conditions and anxiety trait have proved to arouse physiological alterations and aversive cognitive representations, the selective performance impairment found can be attributed to interferences on finger effectors or proprioceptors and to attentional overload, respectively.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Anxiety, manual dexterity and diver performanceErgonomics, 1985
- Effort, aversive representations and performance in test anxietyPersonality and Individual Differences, 1985
- Sport PsychologyAnnual Review of Psychology, 1984
- Attention and ArousalPublished by Springer Nature ,1982
- On the economy of the human-processing system.Psychological Review, 1979
- Central and Peripheral Mechanisms in Motor ControlPublished by Elsevier ,1976
- Effects of Rigidity and Anxiety on Pursuit Rotor PerformancePerceptual and Motor Skills, 1971
- Motor performance under stress: A test of the inverted-U hypothesis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1970
- Effect of Anxiety, Competition, and Failure on Performance of a Complex Motor TaskJournal of Motor Behavior, 1969
- Some relationships between test anxiety, presence or absence of male persons, and boy's performance on a repetitive motor taskJournal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1968