Emotion Self-Regulation, Psychophysiological Coherence, and Test Anxiety: Results from an Experiment Using Electrophysiological Measures

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a novel, classroom-based emotion self-regulation program (TestEdge) on measures of test anxiety, socioemotional function, test performance, and heart rate variability (HRV) in high school students. The program teaches students how to self-generate a specific psychophysiological state--psychophysiological coherence--which has been shown to improve nervous system function, emotional stability, and cognitive performance. Implemented as part of a larger study investigating the population of tenth grade students in two California high schools (N = 980), the research reported here was conducted as a controlled pre- and post-intervention laboratory experiment, using electrophysiological measures, on a random stratified sample of students from the intervention and control schools (N = 136). The Stroop color-word conflict test was used as the experiment's stimulus to simulate the stress of taking a high-stakes test, while continuous HRV recordings were gathered. The post-intervention electrophysiological results showed a pattern of improvement across all HRV measures, indicating that students who received the intervention program had learned how to better manage their emotions and to self-activate the psychophysiological coherence state under stressful conditions. Moreover, students with high test anxiety exhibited increased HRV and heart rhythm coherence even during a resting baseline condition (without conscious use of the program's techniques), suggesting that they had internalized the benefits of the intervention. Consistent with these results, students exhibited reduced test anxiety and reduced negative affect after the intervention. Finally, there is suggestive evidence from a matched-pairs analysis that reduced test anxiety and increased psychophysiological coherence appear to be directly associated with improved test performance--a finding consistent with evidence from the larger study.

Personality and Heart Rate Variability: Exploring Pathways from Personality to Cardiac Coherence and Health

“…A reasonable interpretation would be that more mature and developed character (Cloninger, Svrakic, & Svrakic, 1997) is associated with more PNS inhibitory activity, as a form of mature emotional regulation that arises from an outlook of unity and connectedness with other people and one's surroundings (Cloninger, 2004;Cloninger et al, 2010;Cloninger, 2013). This finding of the relationship between creativity and high vagal tone indicates that an outlook of unity allows a person for function efficiently in a state of calm awareness without unhealthy psychophysiological arousal or defensiveness (Bradley et al, 2010;McCraty et al, 2009). In other words, people with a creative character configuration who are highly self-directed, cooperative, and self-transcendent can function well while remaining calm and happy in the face of the challenges of daily life (Cloninger, 2013).…”

“…They are able to remain alert and think clearly by being calm and happy (Fredrickson and Losada 2005). Their physiological coherence promotes resilience and maintains health (Bradley et al, 2010;Cohn et al, 2009). Measures of HRV provide an objective set of indicators of this creative and coherent way of adapting to life challenges.…”

“…In particular, higher levels of the character traits of Selfdirectedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence are all associated with positive emotions, satisfying social relations, and perceived physical health . Outlooks on life characterized by positive emotions and a sense of connectedness have been shown to promote psychosocial functioning and psychophysiological coherence including increased HRV and improved synchronization in ANS dynamics (Bradley et al, 2010;McCraty et al, 1999).…”

Test anxiety in school-age children: An examination of a national epidemic

“…In a 2013 study (Yehuda, Rabinovitz & Mostofsky, 2013), a correlation was demonstrated between the consumption of essential fatty acids and a reduction in test anxiety. The use of biofeedback in Bradley's et al (2010) study noted a correlation between biofeedback participants and reduced test anxiety.…”

Psihometrijske Karakteristike PHCC Upitnika Ispitne Anksioznosti

“…Osim sa lošijim postignućem, pokazano je i da je ispitna anksioznost značajno povezana sa indikatorima mentalnog blagostanja. Ona pozitivno korelira sa prokrastinacijom (Cassady & Johnson, 2002;Rosário et al, 2008), negativnim afektom (Bradley et al, 2010) i generalnim distresom (Matthews, Hillyard, & Campbell, 1999). Ovoj grupi pridružuju se i simptomi depresivnosti, anksioznosti i stresa (Bieling, Israeli, & Antony, 2004), kao i upotreba iracionalnih uverenja (Wong, 2008).…”