Emotional working memory capacity in test anxiety

Fifty-three highly test anxious persons and 58 lowly test anxious persons completed a modified reading span task assessing emotional working memory capacity. Participants were required to perform simple tasks with emotionally benign material (remembering lists of letters) over short intervals while simultaneously dealing with emotionally-laden intrusive thoughts and feelings (processing sentences describing dysfunctional test-related thoughts) relative to emotionally-neutral information (sentences describing emotionally-neutral facts about the world). Emotional working memory capacity (the ability to remember the letter lists in the context of test-related sentences), relative to neutral working memory capacity (the ability to remember the letter lists in the context of valence-neutral sentences), was poorer in highly test anxious persons compared with lowly test anxious persons. The finding showed a particular difficulty employing working memory in test-related contexts in highly test anxious participants. Interventions that can improve emotional working memory capacity for test anxiety were discussed.