What have Sport and Music PerformanceTaught Us about Test Anxiety?

摘要

Professional athletes and performing artists require peak performance atcritical times, as their careers and livelihoods depend on sustained success. Likewiseexamination candidates aim for high levels of performance in examinations that areimportant to their particular educational and vocational paths. In many areas ofperformance where there is something of high value at stake for the performer, anxietycan increase and, at times, compromise the quality of the performance outcome. Thepresent article comments on the four components of performance anxiety: physiological,cognitive, affective, and behavioural, and three major influential factors. The fourcomponents describe the nature of performance anxiety, but can also interact to create aspiralling cycle of anxiety with the potential to impact on the performance. Three majorinfluential factors are discussed (personality variables; experience, including preparationand performing; and situational variables). Lessons learned from investigative studies ofperformance anxiety in sport and music performance are discussed, and parallels drawnwith test anxiety.