Motivational effects of anxiety on psychomotor performance.
The Hull-Spence theory of anxiety drive (A) was tested in a psychomotor learning situation in which both correct responses (R+) and competing responses (R-) were evoked by the task. Measures of A-Trait and A-State were obtained from 151 women and 52 men, all of whom were then exposed to a sequence of 16 trials on a mirror-tracking task presented either continuously or with 2-min. intertrial intervals. Analyses of the effects of A were then performed on samples of 68 women and 16 men drawn from the tails of the A distributions. Theoretical predictions about the effects of A on initial scores and performance trends of both R+ and R- were strongly supported, somewhat more so within the A-State classification than within the A-Trait classification owing to the larger amount of variance accounted for. Analyses involving intermediate levels of A showed that R+ was a monotonic and essentially linear function of A.
Payne
R B
RB
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-3013.
Corley
T J
TJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D004328:Drive; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008347:Manifest Anxiety Scale; D009042:Motivation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014434:Type A Personality