Department of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, 99 Xuefu Road, Huqiu District, 215009, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
BMC Psychol. 2024 Feb 27;12(1):101. doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01597-w.
The percentage of adolescents with test anxiety is increasing rapidly. Working memory (WM) training has been demonstrated to reduce anxiety levels and enhance attentional control in individuals. Therefore, we investigated whether adaptive dual n-back WM training could lower test anxiety level and improve attentional control in adolescents.
Forty adolescents were allocated to either adaptive dual n-back WM training (n = 21) or non-adaptive dual 1-back WM training (n = 19) for 10 days. The Test Anxiety Scale was applied to measure individuals' test anxiety symptoms. The Attentional Control Scale (ACS), the flanker task, and the Go/Nogo task were used to measure attentional control.
Compared with the control group, the training group reported significantly relief of test anxiety symptoms; however, there were no significant differences between the two groups in pre-to-post changes in ACS scores or performance on the flanker task and Go/Nogo task.
In sum, adaptive dual n-back WM training effectively reduced adolescents' level of test anxiety but did not improve their attentional control.
青少年考试焦虑的比例正在迅速增加。工作记忆（WM）训练已被证明可以降低个体的焦虑水平并增强注意力控制。因此，我们研究了自适应双 n 回 WM 训练是否可以降低青少年的考试焦虑水平并改善注意力控制。
将 40 名青少年随机分配到自适应双 n 回 WM 训练组（n = 21）或非自适应双 1 回 WM 训练组（n = 19），进行为期 10 天的训练。使用考试焦虑量表来衡量个体的考试焦虑症状。使用注意力控制量表（ACS）、侧抑制任务和 Go/Nogo 任务来衡量注意力控制。
与对照组相比，训练组报告的考试焦虑症状明显缓解；然而，两组在 ACS 评分或侧抑制任务和 Go/Nogo 任务的表现方面，前后变化均无显著差异。
总之，自适应双 n 回 WM 训练有效降低了青少年的考试焦虑水平，但并未改善他们的注意力控制。
