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UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATION 73Test-Taking Stage. As he is taking the examination, he notices that
many students are completing their exams early and wonders if the
test is easier than he thinks. He begins to question his ability and his
worry begins to interfere with his ability to recall the little informa-
tion he studied. He becomes frustrated because he is unable to think
about the possible answers to the questions.
A different approach needs to be taken with anxious students who
have good study skills but cannot handle evaluative pressure, and with
anxious students who have difficulty learning the content (whose anx-
iety interferes in the appraisal and preparation stage; Naveh-Benjamin,
McKeachie, & Lin, 1987). In chapter 5, I discuss relaxation tech-
niques and cognitive therapies designed to reduce the worry compo-
nents of test anxiety. You will be asked to think about and analyze
your anxiety-provoking thoughts and develop new coping strategies,
such as using positive self-talk before a test and instruct yourself
to attend to the task while studying or taking tests. These strategies
will help students who have difficulty with evaluative pressure.
Researchers have found that high-anxiety students use poorer study
strategies than students lower in anxiety and are more prone to use
avoidance to cope with their academic problems (Zeidner, 1995).
Thus, the learning strategies that you are acquiring in this course can
help in reducing anxiety.
Another characteristic of anxiety is misdirected attention. Here the
problem is with concentration or attention. No matter what the aca-
demic activity—taking notes, reading a textbook, studying, or taking
an exam—anxious students easily lose their attention. This behavior
handicaps students by not allowing them to complete their work effi-
ciently, and can cause emotional upset. Anxious Alberto’s motiva-
tional problem is that he constantly encounters distractions when he
begins studying for an exam. He constantly thinks about the possi-
bility of failure and forgets information. Safe Susan also has anxiety
problems, but in her case, the anxiety leads to obsessive studying and
preparation.
The final characteristic of anxious students is the tendency to act
inappropriately. Procrastination is very common, as is quitting tasks
before they are completed, conversing with a friend when time is run-
ning out to complete an assignment, or answering test questions in a
rush to get out of the examination room as soon as possible. Test anx-
iety is a specific form of anxiety related to evaluation of academic
ability. Educators are especially concerned about this type of anxiety,
because it increases through the elementary grades to high school and
becomes more strongly (i.e., negatively) related to indexes of intellec-
tual and academic performance (Hembree, 1988). As students proceed
through school, the higher their anxiety, the more likely they will
experience lower achievement.