Test anxiety is a prevalent stressor which negatively impacts academic performance in evaluative situations. Previous literature has shown that attention biases (AB) to threats are implicated with general anxiety. However, few studies have examined the effect between AB to relevant threats (i.e., testing threats) and test anxiety. This study addressed previous gaps by examining whether temperamental effortful control and frontal EEG asymmetry (FA) impacted the relation between an exogenous AB to test threats and test anxiety in undergraduate students. A dot-probe task with test threat words as the target was given to the students. Paired-sample T tests show the presence of an AB to test threats in the endogenous (i.e., 500ms) condition but not in the exogenous (i.e., 250ms) condition. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that right FA modulated the positive relation between AB to test threats with test anxiety and positive relation between test anxiety with AB to test threats. Attentional control negatively predicted test anxiety but not the AB to test threats. AC and IC did not significantly interact with either test anxiety or AB to test threats in predicting the other (i.e., test anxiety predicting AB to test threats and vice-versa). A four-way interaction indicated that greater test anxiety predicts a stronger AB to test threats for those with right FA, low AC, and high IC. This four-way interaction result was conservatively considered due to the risk of overfitting. Results suggest the need to include FA in future studies of AB to test threats. / Doctor of Philosophy / Test anxiety is a prevalent stressor which negatively impacts academic performance in evaluative situations. Research shows that greater attention (i.e., attention biases; AB) to threats is related with general anxiety. However, few studies have examined the effect between AB to relevant threats (i.e., testing threats) and test anxiety. This study addressed previous gaps by examining whether temperamental effortful control and frontal EEG asymmetry (FA) impacted the relation between an exogenous AB to test threats and test anxiety in undergraduate students. A dot-probe task with test threat words as the target was given to the students. Paired-sample T tests show the presence of an AB to test threats in the endogenous (i.e., 500ms) condition but not in the exogenous (i.e., 250ms) condition. Results showed that positive relation between AB to test threats with test anxiety and positive relation between test anxiety with AB to test threats only occurred when students showed greater right FA. Lower attentional control predicted higher test anxiety but not the AB to test threats. AC and IC did not significantly interact with either test anxiety or AB to test threats in predicting the other (i.e., test anxiety predicting AB to test threats and vice-versa). A four-way interaction indicated that greater test anxiety predicts a stronger AB to test threats for those with right FA, low AC, and high IC. This four-way interaction result was conservatively considered due to the risk of overfitting. Results suggest the need to include FA in future studies of AB to test threats.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/120925 |
| Date | 13 August 2024 |
| Creators | Zerrouk, Mohamed |
| Contributors | Psychology, Bell, Martha Ann, Diana, Rachel A., Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen, Hoffman, Kurt A. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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