Test anxiety is alarmingly rising and has been shown to correlate with academic performance and affect occupations and well-being. Graduate occupational therapy (OT) students encounter a rigorous workload and pressure to become entry-level practitioners. Higher levels of baseline graduate student anxiety is correlated with increased test anxiety.…

Using spatial mapping processes to discriminate between threat and safety is crucial for survival. Little is known why some fail to discriminate during contextual conditioning. We used a virtual reality (VR) contextual conditioning paradigm to elucidate the effects of state and trait anxiety on contextual threat learning. Participants (n = 70)…

The research study involved the introduction of the Transcendental Meditation Program® to nursing students as a strategy of self-care to reduce anxiety and stress. Nursing students are at risk for developing anxiety and stress in their academic and clinical program due to the intense learning environment that requires the integration of…

Endocrine physiology is a complex subject for students. Game-based learning (GBL) and case-based learning (CBL) are active methodologies that are widely used because of their potential for motivation and greater proximity to the reality of modern students. We evaluated the effectiveness of GBL and CBL among veterinary medicine students compared…

Objective: To identify the effects of guided mindfulness meditation on anxiety and stress in pre-healthcare college students. Participants: Students (n = 33, age 19-22 years) were tested between September and November of 2017. Methods: Students completed 5-12 minutes of meditation 6 days/week for 8 weeks. We examined differences in pre- and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess changes in autonomic, behavioral, and acoustic measures in response to social stress in adults who stutter (AWS) compared to adults who do not stutter (ANS). Method: Participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Speilberger, Gorsuch, Luschene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). In order to…

This pilot study adds to the understanding of interventions to manage acculturative stress experienced during undergraduate study abroad programs. It was designed to evaluate the impact of cognitive behavioral strategy training combined with intentional practice during mixed reality (MR) simulations on acculturative stress. Participants included a…

Worry is an important mediator in the relation between stressors and health. This pilot study examined whether a smartphone-based in time worry-reduction training was feasible and improved physiological health (i.e. increased heart rate variability [HRV]). A total of 26 high-worriers were randomised to an experimental or active-control condition…

This experimental study examined the validity of 3 underlying mechanisms that have been proposed in the research literature to explain the anxiety-reducing effect of coloring mandalas: distraction, structure, and centering. Four conditions were tested: (a) freely coloring a mandala, (b) coloring a mandala with preset colors, (c) freely drawing a…

Anxiety prepares an organism for dealing with threats by recruiting cognitive resources to process information about the threat, and by engaging physiological systems to prepare a response. Heightened trait anxiety is associated with biases in both these processes: high trait-anxious individuals tend to report heightened risk perceptions, and…

Background: Accumulating data from animal and human studies indicate that the prenatal environment plays a significant role in shaping children's neurocognitive development. Clinical, epidemiologic, and basic science research suggests that two experiences relatively common in pregnancy--an unhealthy maternal diet and psychosocial…

Computerized self-assessment testing can help learners reflect on learning content and can also promote their motivation toward learning. However, a positive affective state is the key to achieving these learning goals. This study aims to examine learning gains and emotional reactions resulting from receiving emotional feedback in the form of…

Background: The present study was designed to examine the cortical processes that mediate cognitive regulation in response to emotion-eliciting stimuli in anxious children. Methods: Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded from clinically anxious children ("n" = 29) and typically developing children ("n" = 34).…

With the goal of identifying the characteristics or traits students bring to the classroom that predispose them to panic when faced with the threat of presenting in front of an audience, this study introduced a subtype of public-speaking state anxiety--anxious arousal. Specifically, this study examined the extent to which trait anxiety and…

Few studies have been conducted on the physiological effects of creative art activities. In this study, the effects of creative art activities on human stress were investigated, and their effects were compared in 57 healthy college students (27 males and 30 females). Subjects were divided into four groups, each of which participated in 30-minute…