Ramirez 2011 Testing Worries

Question 1

Working memory

Answer 1

A short-term memory system involved in the control and regulation of a limited amount of info immediately relevant to the task at hand

Question 2

Hypotheses

Answer 2

• Worries can occupy “space” in WM and adversely affect performance
• Expressive writing might
  
  • Help reduce rumination and
  • alleviate the burden of worry on WM
  • Might enhance performance

Question 3

What are the key concepts in what we read?

Answer 3

worries, working memory, test performance

Question 4

What question(s) did the author(s) set out to answer?

Answer 4

Remaining from 1 to 2 → Would any kind of writing alleviate pressure? Maybe its enough to be distracted by writing

Question 5

How did the author(s) go about studying their research question(s)? (Study 1)

Answer 5

Method

• N = 20 college students
• Math pre-test
• induced pressure
  
  • Monetary incentives ($ for performance on our math test)
  • Peer pressure (”team effort” and partner already succeeded)
  • Social evaluation (videotaped Ts and Ss would watch)
• Conditions
  
  • Control: sit quietly for 10 min
  • Treatment: expressive writing assignment - thoughts about impending math test
• Math Posttest (DV)

Question 6

How did the author(s) go about studying their research question(s)? (study 2)

Answer 6

Lab study 2

• Replication of study 1
• Conditions
  
  • Control: sit quietly for 10 min
  • Treatment: Expressive writing assignment
  • Unrelated writing: write about an unrelated unemotional event

Question 7

Field studies - Hypotheses

Answer 7

1. Students most prone to worry will show the largest benefit of writing
2. Expressive writing will eliminate negative relation between test anxiety and performance

Question 8

How did the author(s) go about studying their research question(s)? (Field Study)

Answer 8

Method

• Same study twice, 1 year apart
• N =51 and 55 9th graders about to take a final
• Randomly assigned, within the teacher to 1 of 2 conditions:
  
  • expressively writing: write thoughts about the coming exam
  • control: write thoughts about a topic not on the exam
• 10 minutes to write
• Measures
  
  • Test anxiety
  • Midterm and final exam scores

Question 9

What did they find (study 1)

Answer 9

Study 1

• Pretest: no difference across experiment and control groups
• Posttest: The experimental (i.e. expressive writing) group performed significantly better than the control group
• Control Group (sit quietly) choked (significantly worse than pre)
• The experimental group improved significantly compared to the pretest

Question 10

What did they find (study 2

Answer 10

• Pretest: no difference across groups
• Posttest:
  
  • Control group (sit quietly) : performance dropped significantly
  • Expressive writing group: significant gain
  • Unrelated writing group: performance dropped significantly
• Analysis of Writing Content
• Result:
  
  • What worked in the expressive wriiting group is that Ss wrote about their worries (this helps!)

Question 11

What did they find (Field Study)

Answer 11

• Control condition: (wrote but not about worries)
  
  • the higher Ss’ test anxiety, the lower their final exam score
• Expressive writing condition:
  
  • No Correlation between Ss’ level of anxiety and their final exam score
• Median split on anxiety
• Those low in anxiety showed no difference on final as a function of writing condition
• Those high in anxiety who wrote expressively
  
  • Outperformed controls ( B+ vs. B- )
  • Performed similarly to those low in anxiety

Question 12

Why should we care?

Answer 12

1. Testing is anxiety-inducing
2. We should try to minimize the anxiety in students