Development and validation of the performance evaluation anxiety task: a computerized task to identify functionally...

All currently available instruments for measuring test anxiety are subjective surveys that do not assess functional impairment. Using the attentional control theory of anxiety as its theoretical basis, the Performance Evaluation Anxiety Task (PEAT) was designed as a computerized task to objectively quantify performance disruption induced by negative performance evaluation. Normative scores were determined from a pool of 573 participants. The task was validated using four complementary approaches. Salivary cortisol increased significantly more in individuals classified as highly test anxious (HTA) than low test anxious (LTA), demonstrating physiological sensitivity to evaluation (n = 207). In a dot-probe task with electroencephalography (n = 55), HTA demonstrated altered attentional engagement and disengagement, along with modulation of neural markers of cognitive control (frontal midline theta, theta/beta ratio, posterior theta and alpha power) specifically in response to test-related threat, but not generally threatening items. In a go/no-go task (n = 39), HTA exhibited negative performance feedback-induced increases in commission errors and reductions in post-error slowing without differences in overall accuracy, indicating evaluation-specific executive control disruption rather than global performance deficits. Finally, PEAT classification was unrelated to ADHD diagnosis or medication use (n = 75), supporting discriminant validity. Taken together, these findings provide convergent behavioral, physiological, and neural evidence of the construct and predictive validity of the PEAT as an objective measure of functionally significant test anxiety.