COMPENSATORY READING STRATEGIES IN TEST ANXIETY

The effects of test anxiety and evaluative stress on reading speed, ar ticulatory rehearsal, reading regressions, and comprehension were exam ined. High- and low-test-anxiety subjects read texts under conditions of stress (Studies 1, 2 and 3) or non-stress (Study 4). Texts were pre sented either with concurrent irrelevant speech (heard), an articulato ry suppression task, or no concurrent task. Measures of working memory span and prior vacabulary knowledge were collected under non-stress c onditions (Study 5). There were no differences in comprehension perfor mance as a function of anxiety, but high anxious subjects were less ef ficient than low-anxious subjects, as the former employed more reading time and regressions, though not more articulation, than the latter t o obtain an equivalent comprehension score. Reading regressions emerge d as the most discriminating compensatory strategy associated with anx iety. This reduced efficiency is partly dependent on a basic deficit i n vocabulary knowledge-but not in memory span-, and it is partly trans itory and dependent on the presence of external evaluative stress.