Do Restrictions in Working Memory Capacity Account for Decrements in Cognitive Performance of Highly Test-Anxious Individuals? A Study among Selected Ghanaian University Students

摘要

This study investigated overly test-anxious students with non-test anxious in selected Ghanaian Universities. Findings suggest that states of anxiety and emotional arousal within and among students distract available working memory from current task leaving insufficient capacity to attend to task demands at hand. In this respect, Working Memory Capacity becomes impoverished because resources needed to perform concurrent task become insufficient indicating relationship between anxiety, cognition and students’ academic performance. These were interpreted to mean students’ academic assessment is not unrelated to how academic institutions help overly test anxious students to cope with strategies of stress. This gives plausibility to debate that school-based service delivery may need to migrate from traditional system of assessment to more comprehensive assessment that takes into consideration multiplicity of factors including response to interventions that are prevention-focused.