COGNITION IN TEST-ANXIOUS CHILDREN - THE ROLE OF ON-TASK AND COPING COGNITION RECONSIDERED

This study investigated cognition in children with high, moderate, and low test anxiety under naturalistic test-taking conditions. Children with high test anxiety not only reported more negative self-evaluation s and more off-task thoughts but also more on-task and coping thoughts . Consistent with previous research, no ''task-facilitating'' role for these on-task and coping cognitions was found. This finding lends sup port to the notion of ''the power of non-negative thinking''. The only facilitating role was for positive self-evaluations. It was hypothesi zed that positive cognition could be task-facilitating under certain c onditions. Limited support was found for this idea,