Anxiety,feedback, and self-reference in face recognition

During an incidental learning phase, high and low test-anxious subjects made judgments about people in facial photographs, comparing the person to either themselves (self-reference) or absolute (nonself) standards with regard to intelligence or dependability. On a subsequent unannounced recognition test, feedback emphasized either correct or incorrect responses. Low-anxiety subjects benefited somewhat from both types of feedback, relative to no feedback, whereas anxious subjects were not affected by error-oriented feedback and somewhat hindered by success-oriented feedback. There was no evidence for a relationship between anxiety and self-reference, and no evidence for facilitation from self-reference relative to nonself processing. The results are discussed in terms of Zajonc's (1980) analysis of the role of affect in memory and test-anxiety theories of self-monitoring.The authors would like to acknowledge helpful comments on an earlier draft by several people, especially Matt Marler and Theresa Whitelock.