The Effect of Varying Degrees of Anxiety Upon Classroom Learning Performance

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of varying degrees of anxiety, as measured by the fifty-item forced-choice Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety (TMAS) (24), upon the classroom learning performance of a group of thirty-one student nurses, as measured by the increase in scores on an objective-type final examination administered at the beginning and end of a course in psychiatric nursing. The thirty-one subjects were divided into three groups on the basis of low, medium, and high anxiety scores on the TMAS. The per cent gain scores from the pre- and post-final exam were then compared for these three groups in order to determine whether significant differences in learning performance had taken place.