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Updated: Jul 3, 2026
08:17
Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance
Published on: July 19, 2017
Processing efficiency theory in children: working memory as a mediator between trait anxiety and academic performance
Matthew Owens1, Jim Stevenson, Roger Norgate
1Developmental Brain-Behaviour Unit, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. m.owens@soton.ac.uk
Anxiety, Stress, and Coping
|August 8, 2008
Summary
High trait anxiety in children negatively impacts academic achievement, primarily through impaired verbal working memory. Spatial working memory plays a minimal role in this relationship, according to processing efficiency theory (PET).
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Educational Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Working memory is crucial for academic success.
- High trait anxiety is linked to lower educational achievement.
- Processing Efficiency Theory (PET) suggests anxiety impacts cognitive performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if working memory mediates the link between trait anxiety and academic performance in children.
- To examine the differential roles of verbal and spatial working memory in this mediation.
- To test the applicability of PET in understanding anxiety's effect on education.
Main Methods:
- Fifty 11-12-year-old children completed verbal (digit span) and spatial (Corsi blocks) working memory tasks.
- Trait anxiety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children.
- Academic performance was measured via reasoning and attainment tests.
Main Results:
- Verbal working memory significantly mediated the relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance in 3 out of 6 measures.
- Spatial working memory did not significantly mediate this association.
- Verbal working memory explained 51% of the anxiety-achievement link, versus 9% for spatial working memory.
Conclusions:
- Verbal working memory is a key mediator between trait anxiety and academic underachievement in children.
- PET provides a valuable framework for understanding how anxiety affects educational outcomes.
- Interventions targeting verbal working memory may help mitigate anxiety's negative impact on academic performance.
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