title: Role of self-control strength in the relation between anxiety and cognitive performance.
abstract: In the present work, we examine the role of self-control resources within the relationship between anxiety and cognitive test performance. We argue that self-control is required for keeping attention away from anxiety-related worries, which would otherwise distract a person from performing on the test. In Study 1 (N = 67) and Study 2 (N = 96), we found that state anxiety was negatively related to performance of verbal learning and mental arithmetic if participants' self-control resources were depleted, but it was unrelated if participants' self-control was intact. In Study 3 (N = 99), the worry component of trait test anxiety was more strongly related to perceived distraction by worries while performing an arithmetic task for participants with depleted self-control resources than for nondepleted participants. Furthermore, distraction by worries showed to be responsible for suboptimal performance. The findings may help to clarify the anxiety-performance relationship and offer a novel approach for counteracting performance decrements associated with test anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany. alex.bertrams@uni-mannheim.de
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bertrams
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Englert
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dickhäuser
authors.forename: Roy F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Baumeister
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult