INTERPRETATION BIAS IN TEST ANXIETY - THE TIME-COURSE OF PREDICTIVE INFERENCES

The time course of the bias in predictive inferencing as a function of anxiety was examined. Ambiguous sentences (concerned with ego-threat, physical-threat, or nonthreat events) were presented, followed by dis ambiguating sentences in which a target word either confirmed or disco nfirmed the consequences implied by the ambiguous context. High- and l ow-anxiety subjects read the sentences at their own pace with the movi ng-window procedure. Effects on word reading times at different points were measured. Priming effects occurred for high-anxiety subjects whe n reading disambiguating ego-threat-related sentences: There was great er relative facilitation for confirming than for disconfirming ego-thr eat versions in high-anxiety subjects, compared with physical-threat a nd nonthreat versions, and with low-anxiety subjects. Because these ef fects were not observed in the target word itself but in the post-targ et region and the last word of the disambiguating sentence, we conclud ed that the bias towards ego-threat predictive inferences does not occ ur during the initial processing of the ambiguous information, but rat her, is a post lexical delayed phenomenon. The mechanisms of such bias are discussed in relation to current models of inferences in reading.