In this blogpost we wish to highlight the following article as a candidate for a set of Robustness Reports:
Theobald, M., Breitwieser, J., & Brod, G. (2022). Test anxiety does not predict exam performance when knowledge is controlled for: strong evidence against the interference hypothesis of test anxiety. Psychological Science, 33(12), 2073–2083. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221119391
The abstract:
Do test-anxious students perform worse in exam situations than their knowledge would otherwise allow? We analyzed data from 309 medical students who prepared for a high-stakes exam using a digital learning platform. Using log files from the learning platform, we assessed students’ level of knowledge throughout the exam-preparation phase and their average performance in mock exams that were completed shortly before the final exam. The results showed that test anxiety did not predict exam performance over and above students’ knowledge level as assessed in the mock exams or during the exam-preparation phase. Leveraging additional ambulatory assessment data from the exam-preparation phase, we found that high trait test anxiety predicted smaller gains in knowledge over the exam-preparation phase. Taken together, these findings are incompatible with the hypothesis that test anxiety interferes with the retrieval of previously learned knowledge during the exam.
We suggest this article as a target for re-analysis due to its surprising result. No link was found between test anxiety and test performance when controlling for students’ knowledge and there was no interaction between working memory capacity and test anxiety. This goes against the interference hypothesis which assumes that students with lower working memory capacity should be particularly affected by test anxiety “occupying” their working memory. Independent reanalyses could increase confidence in the evidence refuting the interference hypothesis of test anxiety.
The data are publicly available at https://osf.io/kg7wb/.
Author
Jari Holla
References
Theobald, M., Breitwieser, J., & Brod, G. (2022). Test anxiety does not predict exam performance when knowledge is controlled for: strong evidence against the interference hypothesis of test anxiety. Psychological Science, 33(12), 2073–2083. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221119391
Featured image from GenAI