Anxiety and Cognitive Performance: A Test of Attentional Control Theory

  • Elizabeth J Edwards

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Two series of experimental studies investigated the relationship between anxiety and cognitive performance and were premised on Attentional Control Theory(ACT). Series 1 included four studies that examined the relationship between trait anxiety (somatic and cognitive; operationalised using questionnaire scores), situational stress (somatic and cognitive; manipulated using threat of electric shock and ego threat instructions, respectively), mental effort (indexed using a self-report visual analogue scale) and performance on phonological (forward and backward word span), updating (reading span), inhibitory (Go-No-Go), and shifting (WCST) tasks. Series 2 included three studies that investigated the associations between cognitive trait anxiety (measured using questionnaire scores), situational stress (manipulated using ego threat instructions), motivation (indexed using questionnaire scores) and performance on an updating (reading span), inhibitory (Go-No-Go), and shifting (WCST) tasks.
Date of Award10 Oct 2015
Original languageEnglish
SupervisorMichael Lyvers (Supervisor)

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