Some effects of anxiety and cognitive style upon pursuit rotor learning

The present study sought to investigate the interrelationships between anxiety level and cognitive style upon pursuit rotor learning under conditions of relatively massed practice. The empirical specifications of anxiety were chosen so as to render the study comparable to previous investigations executed within the general framework of Spence's (1956, 1958) developments of Hull's (1943) notions concerning the relationship to drive level and learning task performance. The results were also related to Eysenck's (1956, 1964, 1965) elaborations of Hullian theory as related to motor learning phenomena. The cognitive style variable was assessed by a single measuring instrument, the Stroop Test. The variables tapped by this instrument were expressed within the framework of neo-Hullian theory, and predictions made from an expanded version of the theory. Subjects were constituted into four groups: Cognitive High-anxiety, Cognitive Low-anxiety, Perceptual-motor High-anxiety, and Perceptual-motor Low-anxiety. When the pursuit rotor task was administered, Perceptual-motor subjects excelled, as expected, as compared to Cognitive subjects. High-anxious Perceptual-motor subjects exhibited greater amounts of reminiscence than did Low-anxious Perceptual-motor subjects; unexpectedly, the reverse effect obtained within the Cognitive group, with the Low-anxious subjects showing more reminiscence. It is suggested that conditioned inhibitory effects might have appeared differentially within the groups.