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Test Anxiety and Metacognitive Performance in the Classroom

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Abstract

Test anxiety is a context-specific academic anxiety which can result in poorer academic and metacognitive performance. We assessed how the quantity and relative weight of assessments contribute to the effects of test anxiety on performance and metacognitive accuracy in a smaller seminar-style class on human memory (study 1) and a larger lecture-style class on cognitive psychology (study 2). Students took six low-stakes quizzes each worth 10% of their final grade in study 1 and two high-stakes exams each worth 40% of their final grade in study 2. All students provided their state anxiety and predicted their scores before and after each assessment. Students in both classes also provided their trait (overall) anxiety after the final assessment. In both studies, students’ higher post-state anxiety appeared to be associated with worse assessment performance; however, pre- and post-state anxiety decreased across the quarter in study 1 but remained constant in study 2. Additionally, we found that metacognitive accuracy moderated the effect of post-state anxiety on performance in study 1. Students with higher trait anxiety in study 1 were underconfident in their scoring predictions, while in study 2 students with higher trait anxiety performed worse on their assessments. Thus, students’ metacognitive accuracy appears to be influenced by trait anxiety when taking low-stakes quizzes, while performance is related to trait anxiety when taking high-stakes exams.

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Data Availability

Data and survey materials are available via OSF (https://osf.io/pv89n/).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Gerardo Ramirez, Barbara Knowlton, Robert Bjork, Elizabeth Bjork, and Courtney Clark for helpful comments regarding this work. We also thank Mary Hargis, Dillon Murphy, Julia Schorn, Mary Whatley, and the rest of the members of the Memory and Lifespan Cognition Laboratory at UCLA for their guidance and support.

Code Availability

No custom code or software were written for this project. Code to run analyses in R are provided in the OSF link below.

Funding

This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging; Award Number R01 AG044335 to Dr. Alan Castel).

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Author notes

  1. Shawn T. Schwartz

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

  2. Alexander L. M. Siegel

    Present address: Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 502 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Katie M. Silaj, Shawn T. Schwartz, Alexander L. M. Siegel & Alan D. Castel

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  1. Katie M. Silaj
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Contributions

A. D. Castel and A. L. M. Siegel conceived of the study. A. L. M. Siegel collected the data, and S. T. Schwartz analyzed the data with A. L. M. Siegel and K. M. Silaj. K. M. Silaj and S. T. Schwartz wrote the manuscript. A. L. M. Siegel and A. D. Castel contributed to the editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Katie M. Silaj.

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Silaj, K.M., Schwartz, S.T., Siegel, A.L.M. et al. Test Anxiety and Metacognitive Performance in the Classroom. Educ Psychol Rev 33, 1809–1834 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09598-6

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