11response. Any changes in judgmental times per se may be masked by these gross phenomena. High anxiety (which operates as D in drive theory) not only facilitates competing response tendencies but decreases the latency of well learned or habitual responses as well. With so many already established performance elements in our microphonic reporting system faster reaction times might cancel out the decrement from competing response tendencies and level the performance of the two groups.
SUMMARYTwenty high scorers and twenty low scorers on the Manifest Anxiety Scale were asked to rate 21 schizophrenic vocabulary test responses on a 7-point scale for disorganization of thinking. The judgments were repeated for 6 trials. Using measures of reaction time, number of category shifts, interjudge agreement (reliability), and agreement with previous standardization values (validity), there was clear evidence of learning as the 6 trials progressed. On the reliability and validity measures the high anxious group were significantly inferior t o the low anxious group at the beginning, with this difference diminishing with practice. This finding is in accord with a drive theory hypothesis of interaction between drive level and competing response tendencies.
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