Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine whether the usual performance deficit effect of anxiety on retention changed as the materials to be remembered were emotionally toned and personally relevant and, furthermore, as they were requested to be self-referent processed. Forty adjectives used had a generally positive affective tone as personality descriptors, and another forty were negative. Adjectives used were describing personality traits either in the positive or in the negative way. The study employed the mixed factorial design of test anxiety (2) x self-descriptiveness (2) x likable-dislikable materials (2). In the Experiment I, subjects were asked to rate adjective words in terms of self-descriptiveness, familiarity, and personal meaningfulness. Experiment II used the intentional learning condition, which was contrasted with the incidental condition of the Experiment I. Firstly, self-monitoring increased as test anxiety level increased. Only the cognitive worry factor was used in test anxiety measurement. Self-processing of the individual's own self-traits might usually be task-irrelevant, resulting in the adverse effect of anxiety, when neutral materials were used. Secondly, processing of the materials related to self-description was not necessarily self-referenced and, thereby, no significant change of the deficit was followed. Thirdly, the performance deficit was significantly changed when self-referent processing involved the self-related materials. The change was particularly noted with dislikable materials. They were discussed with restriction of cue utilization hypothesis.