Mg. Calvo et P. Avero, ANXIETY, COMPENSATORY STRATEGIES AND READING-COMPREHENSION - PROCESSING DEFICIT VS LACK OF CONFIDENCE, Psicothema, 7(3), 1995, pp. 569-578
The processing deficit and the lack of confidence hypotheses were test
ed in order to explain why high-anxiety subjects are more likely than
low-anxiety subjects to make regressive fixations and to reduce readin
g speed. Subjects high or low in test anxiety read texts with (a) regr
essive fixations and self-paced reading allowed, (b) self-paced readin
g (no regressive fixations), and (c) fixed-pace reading (no regressive
fixations or self-paced reading). Results indicated that (a) high-anx
iety subjects made more regressive fixations and read more slowly than
low-anxiety subjects; (b) comprehension performance was higher with r
egressive fixations than with self-paced reading, and it was poorest i
n the fixed-pace condition; and (c) there were no comprehension perfor
mance differences as a function of anxiety in the regressive fixations
and the self-paced conditions; in contrast, high-anxiety subjects sho
wed greater impairment than low-anxiety subjects in the fixed-pace con
dition. The more frequent use of regressive fixations in high-anxiety
can be explained by the lack of confidence hypothesis, whereas the add
itional reading time can be accounted for by the processing deficit hy
pothesis.