Premium
TEST ANXIETY AND MOTOR PERFORMANCE: THE ROLE OF MUSCULAR AND ATTENTIONAL DEMANDS *
Author(s) -
Calvo Manuel G.,
Alamo Leopoldo
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207598708246775
Subject(s) - psychology , trait anxiety , anxiety , trait , test (biology) , cognition , cognitive psychology , gross motor skill , motor skill , developmental psychology , neuroscience , psychiatry , paleontology , computer science , biology , programming language
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.