The effects of anxiety on affective learning and serial position recall

Sixty-five college-aged adults participated in a study that examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on learning positive and negative emotional words from the Affective Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AAVL). Self-reported state and trait anxiety were measured via Speilberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Each participant completed the five learning trials and delayed recall trial of the positive and negative word lists; order of administration for the word lists was counterbalanced across participants. Using ANOVA, initial analyses revealed significant effects for order of administration of the positive and negative word lists. ANCOVAs (using state and trait anxiety as covariates) yielded a significant interaction involving serial position, trial, and state anxiety as well as an interaction involving serial position, trial, and trait anxiety. Post hoc analyses did not support a priori hypotheses. However, state anxiety was associated with decreased word recall on the first learning trial. The results of this study indicate that state anxiety is initially associated with decreased performance when learning emotional words. However, these initial effects dissipate with subsequent learning trials. Implications for task performance are discussed.