Sylvia Allison M, Shear Paula K, Jastrowski Mano Kristen E, Guerin Julia M, Mano Quintino R
Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Anxiety Stress Coping. 2023 Nov;36(6):781-794. doi: 10.1080/10615806.2023.2169677. Epub 2023 Feb 8.
High test anxiety has been associated with poorer academic performance. Test anxiety may affect academic performance by disrupting cognitive processes required for complex academic tasks, such as reading comprehension.
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to clarify the cognitive pathways through which test anxiety may affect reading comprehension performance using archival clinical data of adults (= 94; = 23.35, = 4.32) referred for a comprehensive psychological assessment for academic difficulties. Serial multiple indirect effects analysis was used to assess for the direct and indirect effects of test anxiety on reading comprehension through cognitive processing speed, working memory, fluid reasoning, and crystallized knowledge. A second serial multiple indirect effects analysis was conducted with trait anxiety as the antecedent.
Test anxiety had a significant indirect effect on reading comprehension through fluid reasoning (= -.08, = .04; 95% [-.15 to -.01]), while trait anxiety exerted no significant effect.
Results suggest that test anxiety and fluid reasoning play unique roles in disrupting academic functioning among individuals referred for academic difficulties. It may be that test anxious adults struggle to reason effectively in testing situations, leading to downstream difficulty comprehending text.
高考试焦虑与较差的学业成绩相关。考试焦虑可能通过干扰复杂学术任务（如阅读理解）所需的认知过程来影响学业成绩。
本横断面研究的目的是利用因学习困难而接受综合心理评估的成年人（n = 94；M = 23.35，SD = 4.32）的档案临床数据，阐明考试焦虑可能影响阅读理解成绩的认知途径。采用系列多重间接效应分析来评估考试焦虑通过认知加工速度、工作记忆、流体推理和晶体知识对阅读理解的直接和间接影响。以特质焦虑为先行变量进行了第二次系列多重间接效应分析。
考试焦虑通过流体推理对阅读理解有显著间接效应（β = -.08，SE = .04；95% CI [-.15至-.01]），而特质焦虑无显著影响。
结果表明，考试焦虑和流体推理在有学习困难的个体的学业功能障碍中起独特作用。可能是考试焦虑的成年人在考试情境中难以有效推理，导致后续理解文本困难。
