Test Anxiety: Interference, Defective Skills, and Cognitive Capacity

This paper reviews the differences between two interpretations accounting for the poor test performance of high-anxious students: (a) that anxiety interferes with retrieval of prior learning, or (b) that either of two types of deficits in study or test-taking skills may account for these findings. Research results dealing with these hypotheses are reviewed. It was concluded that these were complementary, rather than mutually exclusive formulations. A hypothesis was advanced suggesting that test anxiety debilitates performance by reducing the cognitive capacity available for task solution, and that study or test-taking skills facilitate learning and test performance by reducing the cognitive capacity demanded by different tasks.