Working memory function in state and trait anxiety: attentional control theory

Abstract

Background: Much effort has been made to explain theoretically the impact of anxiety on cognitive functions, one of these theories is attentional control theory. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of working memory in two groups of normal and anxiety students according to the attentional control theory. Materials and Methods: Method of research was causal-comparative. the statistical society was female student dormitory of azarbaijan shahid madani university in 2013- 2014 , which were selected using convenience sampling . 178 students first completed the State Trait Anxiety Inventory. After scoring a total of 67 students from 25 high percentage of distribution (people with high trait and state anxiety) and 25 percent lower distribution (those with low trait and state anxiety) were selected and divided into two groups of high anxiety and low anxiety. Results: The results showed that there were significant differences between two groups of high anxiety and low anxiety(p<0/05). The data was analyzed using t student. Conclusion: Based on these Results, we can conclude that anxiety has significant effects on students working memory performance.

Keywords

• Working memory
• state anxiety
• trait anxiety
• attentional control theory