The effects of anxiety on affective learning and serial position recall.

Sixty-five college-aged adults participated in a study that examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on learning positive and negative emotional words from the Affective Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AAVL). Self-reported state and trait anxiety were measured via Speilberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Each participant completed the five learning trials and delayed recall trial of the positive and negative word lists; order of administration for the word lists was counterbalanced across participants. Using ANOVA, initial analyses revealed significant effects for order of administration of the positive and negative word lists. ANCOVAs (using state and trait anxiety as covariates) yielded a significant interaction involving serial position, trial, and state anxiety as well as an interaction involving serial position, trial, and trait anxiety. Post hoc analyses did not support a priori hypotheses. However, state anxiety was associated with decreased word recall on the first learning trial. The results of this study indicate that state anxiety is initially associated with decreased performance when learning emotional words. However, these initial effects dissipate with subsequent learning trials. Implications for task performance are discussed.

Deception strategies in children: examination of forced choice recognition and verbal learning and memory techniques.

Thirty-five children ages 6-12 years were asked to complete two alternate forms of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R), once with the instruction to feign cognitive impairment and once instructed to do their best. They were also asked to complete the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM). Regardless of condition, children performed comparably to adult norms on the TOMM, obtaining a score of 45 or above on Trial 2. Regarding the HVLT-R, differences emerged only when children were initially told to "do their best," followed by a subsequent trial in which they were told feign impairment. Within this group of participants, children demonstrated significantly lower levels of learning across trials and fewer words recalled in comparison to when they were instructed to do their best. In contrast, no reliable differences on the HVLT-R were observed among children who were initially told to feign impairment and subsequently told to do their best. These results suggest that the elicitation of "feigned" impairment within this age group on the HVLT-R requires the initial provision of an opportunity for optimal performance.