Intelligence test performance as affected by anxiety and test administration procedures.
Compared the scores obtained by high and low anxious Ss, when the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale was administered by a trained examiner, with those obtained when the test was administered mechanically. A sample of 40 Ss were classified into high and low anxious groups in terms of their scores on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. Each S was given half the items of the WAIS verbal scale by a trained examiner and half by machine. Analysis of the scores under these two modes of test presentation, using a 2 X 2 X 2 factional analysis of variance, showed no significant differences in performance of high and low anxious Ss under two testing situations. Similarly, there were no differences in the performance of male and female Ss. However, the Ss showed a significant tendency to score higher when the test was given by an examiner than when the test was administered mechanically. Such differences, however, were not observed when the scores on each subtest were compared under two testing conditions except in the case of the Information and Arithmetic subtests.
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008347:Manifest Anxiety Scale; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D014888:Wechsler Scales