Compensatory reading strategies in test anxiety

Abstract The effects of test anxiety and evaluative stress on reading speed, articulatory rehearsal, reading regressions, and comprehension were examined. High- and low-test-anxiety subjects read texts under conditions of stress (Studies 1, 2 and 3) or non-stress (Study 4). Texts were presented either with concurrent irrelevant speech (heard), an articulatory suppression task, or no concurrent task. Measures of working memory span and prior vacabulary knowledge were collected under non-stress conditions (Study 5). There were no differences in comprehension performance as a function of anxiety, but high anxious subjects were less efficient than low-anxious subjects, as the former employed more reading time and regressions, though not more articulation, than the latter to obtain an equivalent comprehension score. Reading regressions emerged as the most discriminating compensatory strategy associated with anxiety. This reduced efficiency is partly dependent on a basic deficit in vocabulary knowledge—but not in memory span—, and it is partly transitory and dependent on the presence of external evaluative stress.