Pjm. Prins et al., COGNITION IN TEST-ANXIOUS CHILDREN - THE ROLE OF ON-TASK AND COPING COGNITION RECONSIDERED, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 62(2), 1994, pp. 404-409
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,