Effects of test anxiety, information organization, and testing situation on performance on two test formats

The study tested the integrated model for explaining the effect of test anxiety (TA) on performance. The model assumes two types of test-anxious students - those with good information organization (IO) skills and those with poor ones. It was hypothesized that an interaction would emerge between IO and TA in predicting performance in an evaluative situation but not in a nonevaluative situation. One measure of TA and two measures of IO (a self-report questionnaire and a cognitive-structure task) were administered to 179 tenth graders. The dependent variable was a test in biology which included multiple-choice and open-ended items. Two versions of the test were developed: one was administered in an evaluative situation and the other in a nonevaluative situation. The results supported the hypothesis. Implications for treatment of the two types of test-anxious students were discussed.