The effects of an appraisal manipulation: Affect,intrusive cognitions,and performance for two cognitive tasks

We examined the relationship between trait measures of general appraisal and test anxiety, state measures of stress appraisals, affect, and intrusive cognition, and performance measures on two cognitive tests (mental math and Raven matrices). Participants were randomly assigned to threat, challenge, or control conditions that were created by manipulating both primary and secondary appraisals. We predicted that the threat condition would lead to more negative affect, stress appraisals, intrusive cognitions, and more errors. While our manipulated conditions led to inconsistent effects, path analyses tended to confirm predictions that negative task appraisals and trait test anxiety lead to negative affect and to intrusive cognitions, and that for mental math test performance a path from intrusive cognitions to test errors was established. The importance of understanding dispositionaland situational variables and their interactions during stress encounters are discussed, as is future research involving the general appraisal dimension. The authors wish to thank the many students who acted as experimenters and helped with data entry. Thanks go to James Johnson, Ann Schuller, and Brandon Vancura for all their hard work. Special thanks go to Roger Lott for his expert performance as the main investigator in the threat and challenge conditions. An enormous debt of gratitude also goes to my wife Kathy for all her patience and support, and for her help with the audio tapes used in this study. This study was completed as partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master’s Degree for the first author. Portions of this work will be presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, 1997.