Effects of anxiety and depression on anagram performance, ratings of cognitive interference, and the negative subjective evaluation of performance

✍ Scribed by Matthew Zarantonello; Frank Slaymaker; James Johnson; Thomas Petzel

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 403 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-4679(198401)40:1<20::aid-jclp2270400104>3.0.co;2-u

✦ Synopsis

Studied whether any differential effects of anxiety and depression could be discerned in the anagram performance, ratings of cognitive interference, and subjective evaluation of anagram performance displayed by college students. Seventy-two undergraduates (36 male, 36 female) were selected to participate in the present experiment on the basis of their scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (A-Trait) and/or the Beck Depression Inventory. Results showed that depressed-anxious and anxious Ss displayed a tendency toward reduced efficiency in anagram solution, rated themselves as having experienced significantly more cognitive interference during the anagram task, and displayed a significantly more negative subjective evaluation of their anagram performance than did control Ss. Quasi-F analyses revealed that these results were related significantly to the anxiety factor common to both depressed-anxious and anxious Ss. Implications of these results for future research on anxiety and depression were discussed.