Metacognitions, worry and attentional control in predicting OSCE performance test anxiety

Abstract

The findings support predictions derived from the S-REF model that metacognitive beliefs, trait worry and attentional control processes underlie the onset and maintenance of PTA.

An examination of the self-referent executive processing model of test anxiety: control, emotional regulation, self-handicapping, and examination performance

“…Test anxiety is higher when persons appraise evaluative situations as important but their own competence beliefs to be poor (e.g., Pekrun et al 2004;Putwain et al 2010), use avoidant approaches to coping (Putwain et al , 2016Stöber 2004), and hold avoidant motivations (e.g., Eum and Rice 2011;. Furthermore, test anxiety is enhanced by metacognitive beliefs (e.g., worry is uncontrollable and low confidence in one's cognitive capacities such as memory) and a high degree of metacognitive monitoring (Matthews et al 1999;O'Carroll and Fisher 2013). Maladaptive situational interactions are shown in negative correlations shown between exam-related worry and effort (e.g., Komarraju and Nadler 2013;Pekrun et al 2004; studies 3 and 6), positive correlations between test anxiety and procrastination (Gadbois and Sturgeon 2011), helpless attributional style (Bandalos et al 1995;Cassady 2004), and an attentional bias towards threat stimuli (Putwain et al 2011).…”

Is perceived control a critical factor in understanding the negative relationship between cognitive test anxiety and examination performance?

“…Thus it is possible that some students will become highly test anxious for reasons unrelated to their academic buoyancy, perceived control, or test competence. For instance, if a student held a strong metacognitive belief that worry was an effective coping strategy, they might still become highly test anxious by ruminating on the consequences of failure, even though they believe themselves to be buoyant, in control, and good at taking examinations (see Matthews, Hillyard, & Campbell, 1999;O'Carroll & Fisher, 2013). …”

Metacognition, OSCE performance anxiety and OSCE performance

“…O'Carroll and Fisher studied anxiety in a sample of 240 first‐year medical students by measuring, prior to an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), their general tendency to worry, perceived cognitive control of attention, demographic variables, and performance anxiety related specifically to the upcoming OSCE. This is an important topic as the OSCE is one of the more anxiety‐producing examinations for medical and nursing students .…”

“…This is an important topic as the OSCE is one of the more anxiety‐producing examinations for medical and nursing students . The paper's introduction notes that anxiety is generally negatively correlated with performance, and that psychological interventions have generally shown positive results in reducing anxiety . The authors stop short of claiming that psychological interventions to reduce anxiety will increase OSCE performance, but others have shown increases in non‐medical task performance as the apparent result of anxiety reduction interventions .…”