ABSTRACT

Anxiety disrupts test performance across academic/testing contexts; however, the impact of anxiety on neuropsychological testing has been examined less frequently among older adults, despite clinical observations of high anxiety and dementia worry among elderly individuals in assessment contexts. The present study examined the impact of trait, state, and test anxiety on measures of processing speed, working memory, verbal memory, and aspects of executive functioning (i.e., set shifting and inhibition). We hypothesized that anxiety specific to neuropsychological assessment would correlate with test performance more consistently than state or trait anxiety. Ninety-three older adults aged 55 to 89 underwent a three-and-a-half-hour comprehensive assessment battery measuring anxiety and neuropsychological test performance. All participants completed the Feelings About Neuropsychological Testing State (FANT-S) and Test (FANT-T) questionnaires, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-seven item (GAD-7), and neuropsychological tests in the domains of processing speed, working memory, verbal memory, and executive functioning. When test scores were regressed on these anxiety measures, increases in test anxiety predicted decreased performance on measures of executive functioning, specifically inhibitory control. State anxiety demonstrated the opposite relationship to performance and predicted increased performance on one measure. Trait anxiety did not predict cognitive assessment performance. Findings were consistent with previous research indicating measures of test anxiety are more sensitive to changes in test performance than measures of trait or state anxiety. Results demonstrated that older adults, even those not referred for a clinical neuropsychological assessment, can show decreased test performance when self-reported anxiety relevant to the neuropsychological assessment context is high.

摘要

焦虑会扰乱学术/测试环境中的测试表现；然而，尽管在评估环境中对老年人的高度焦虑和痴呆症担忧进行了临床观察，但焦虑对神经心理学测试的影响在老年人中的研究较少。本研究考察了特质、状态和考试焦虑对处理速度、工作记忆、语言记忆和执行功能方面（即设定转换和抑制）的影响。我们假设特定于神经心理学评估的焦虑与测试表现的相关性比状态或特质焦虑更一致。93 名 55 至 89 岁的老年人接受了三个半小时的综合评估电池测量焦虑和神经心理学测试表现。所有参与者都完成了关于神经心理测试状态（FANT-S）和测试（FANT-T）问卷，广泛性焦虑症七项（GAD-7）以及处理速度，工作记忆，语言记忆领域的神经心理学测试和执行功能。当测试分数根据这些焦虑措施进行倒退时，测试焦虑的增加预示着执行功能（特别是抑制控制）措施的表现下降。状态焦虑表现出与表现相反的关系，并预测一项措施的表现会提高。特质焦虑并不能预测认知评估表现。研究结果与之前的研究一致，表明考试焦虑的测量比特质或状态焦虑的测量对考试表现的变化更敏感。