Weber Charles J, Bizer George Y
Eastern Illinois University, USA.
J Gen Psychol. 2006 Jul;133(3):277-85. doi: 10.3200/GENP.133.3.277-285.
Whereas prior research has demonstrated that warning students of an exam's difficulty well in advance of the exam enhances performance, the current research demonstrated the effect of such forewarning immediately before examination administration. Moments before taking an examination in a laboratory environment, participants were either (a) informed that the examination would be difficult, (b) informed that the examination would be easy, or (c) not given any information about the exam's ostensible difficulty. Participants of low trait anxiety performed better when told the exam would be difficult than when told that the exam would be easy. Conversely, participants of high trait anxiety performed worse when told the exam would be difficult than they did when told the exam would be easy or when provided with no such information. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
尽管先前的研究表明，在考试前很久就告知学生考试难度会提高成绩，但当前的研究展示了在即将进行考试时进行这种预先警告的效果。在实验室环境中即将参加考试前的片刻，参与者被分为以下三种情况：(a) 被告知考试会很难；(b) 被告知考试会很容易；或者 (c) 未被告知关于考试表面难度的任何信息。特质焦虑程度低的参与者在被告知考试会很难时比被告知考试会很容易时表现更好。相反，特质焦虑程度高的参与者在被告知考试会很难时比被告知考试会很容易或未得到此类信息时表现更差。文中还讨论了研究的意义和未来研究的方向。
