Cognitive Processes in Anxiety under Evaluative Stress

The effects of anxiety on cognitive processes under evaluative stress are examined. One group of processes is concerned with the emotional content of information. Anxiety is associated with preferential processing of (or bias towards) threat-related information, relative to neutral information. There is a bias in selective attention to potential threat cues, and preferential interpretation of ambiguous stimuli as threatening, but there is little support for a bias in memory for negative information. A second group of processes is concerned with the amount or complexity of information. Anxiety is associated with a reduced processing of neutral information concurrent with emotional information (and worry thoughts) as task demands on working memory increase. Performance is impaired in difficult tasks involving reasoning processes, and there is an extraordinary use of auxiliary processing resources during reading; the relationship between anxiety and academic performance is negative, though low. The distinction between efficiency and effectiveness is useful to integrate the various effects of anxiety on cognition.