Test anxiety theory is believed to increase distraction from task-irrelevant stimuli. However, it is unclear whether the test-anxious individuals will show distraction to the peripheral distractor. Load theory suggested that perceptual and cognitive loads could manipulate attentional demands during distractor processing. Besides, how increasing the perceptual and cognitive load will affect the distraction in test anxiety remains explored. The present research aimed to test these issues by combining the eye-tracking technique and letter discrimination task with varying types of the peripheral distractor in high-test anxious (HTA) vs. low-test anxious (LTA) individuals. Experiment 1 manipulated the perceptual load by adjusting the difficulty of the task, and Experiment 2 increased cognitive load by adding a backward counting task based on the procedure of Experiment 1. Consequently, HTA individuals had longer response times (RTs) in the test-related distractor condition than in the non-distractor condition of fast-response trials in both experiments, suggesting that the HTA group showed distraction to the test-related distractor within fast-response trials. Besides, the HTA group had fewer fixations than low test-anxious (LTA) individuals in Experiment 1, suggesting that the HTA group may keep hypervigilance by maintaining a broad distribution of attention. These results support that distraction in test anxiety is associated with unspecific hypervigilance and specific inhibition deficits.

考试焦虑理论被认为会增加对与任务无关的刺激的分心。然而，尚不清楚考试焦虑的个体是否会对外围干扰物表现出分心。负荷理论表明，感知和认知负荷可以在干扰处理过程中操纵注意力需求。此外，增加知觉和认知负荷将如何影响考试焦虑的分心仍有待探索。本研究旨在通过将眼动追踪技术和字母辨别任务与高测试焦虑 (HTA) 与低测试焦虑 (LTA) 个体中不同类型的外围干扰物相结合来测试这些问题。实验一通过调整任务难度来操纵知觉负荷，和实验 2 通过添加基于实验 1 程序的反向计数任务来增加认知负荷。因此，HTA 个体在与测试相关的干扰条件下的响应时间 (RTs) 比在快速反应试验的非干扰条件下更长在这两个实验中，表明 HTA 组在快速反应试验中表现出对测试相关干扰物的干扰。此外，在实验 1 中，HTA 组比低测试焦虑 (LTA) 个体的注视更少，这表明 HTA 组可能通过保持广泛的注意力分布来保持高度警惕。这些结果支持考试焦虑的分心与非特异性的过度警觉和特异性抑制缺陷有关。在两个实验中，HTA 个体在与测试相关的干扰条件下的响应时间 (RT) 比在快速响应试验的非干扰条件下更长，这表明 HTA 组在快速响应试验中对测试相关的干扰条件表现出分心. 此外，在实验 1 中，HTA 组比低测试焦虑 (LTA) 个体的注视更少，这表明 HTA 组可能通过保持广泛的注意力分布来保持高度警惕。这些结果支持考试焦虑的分心与非特异性的过度警觉和特异性抑制缺陷有关。在两个实验中，HTA 个体在与测试相关的干扰条件下的响应时间 (RT) 比在快速响应试验的非干扰条件下更长，这表明 HTA 组在快速响应试验中对测试相关的干扰条件表现出分心. 此外，在实验 1 中，HTA 组比低测试焦虑 (LTA) 个体的注视更少，这表明 HTA 组可能通过保持广泛的注意力分布来保持高度警惕。这些结果支持考试焦虑的分心与非特异性的过度警觉和特异性抑制缺陷有关。在实验 1 中，HTA 组比低测试焦虑 (LTA) 个体的注视更少，这表明 HTA 组可能通过保持广泛的注意力分布来保持高度警惕。这些结果支持考试焦虑的分心与非特异性的过度警觉和特异性抑制缺陷有关。在实验 1 中，HTA 组比低测试焦虑 (LTA) 个体的注视更少，这表明 HTA 组可能通过保持广泛的注意力分布来保持高度警惕。这些结果支持考试焦虑的分心与非特异性的过度警觉和特异性抑制缺陷有关。