Behavioral manifestations of worry in test anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty: A laboratory investigation of attention bias with a university population

The present study measured the relationship between self-reported test anxiety (TA), intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and attention bias in 69 undergraduates who reported high and low levels of worry in testing situations and situations in which there are few clues as to the probable outcome. Principal self-reports included the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI; Spielberger, 1980) and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS; Buhr & Dugas, 2002). As predicted, those who obtained high scores on the Worry scale of the TAT also obtained high scores on the IUS. Attention bias was measured using words denoting test anxiety and generic threatening words paired with neutral words on a modified dot probe. Before participating in the modified dot probe, participants were primed with stories about taking a test and stories with uncertain endings to evoke worry. Contrary to hypotheses, participants who obtained high scores on the TAI and IUS did not demonstrate longer response latencies to incongruent trials of words denoting test anxiety or threat when primed with situation-specific stories. However, in closer examination of reaction times, it appeared that participants were more likely to avoid words they found threatening, rather than attend to them. Future research should examine cognitive avoidance strategies in those who worry about evaluations and uncertain situations. Methodological problems with the modified dot probe are discussed.; Keywords. Attention bias, Intolerance of Uncertainty, Modified Dot Probe, Test Anxiety, Worry.