Background: This study investigated the role of different test anxiety components (affective, cognitive, motivational and physiological) as mediators between control and performance as proposed by Pekrun's control-value theory (CVT). While all components were assessed via self-report, the physiological component was additionally assessed via…

It is widely known that test anxiety (TA) is associated with a decrease in test scores. The objective of this study is to provide evidence of the existence of two paths through which TA affects test scores: an indirect path that is associated with the mediation of the updating efficiency and a direct path moderated by the putting into perspective…

Many students find the transition to college coursework stressful and challenging. Decades of research in the cognitive sciences have provided data regarding effective ways to obtain and retain information; however, many students do not use these strategies. In this article, we embed a self-study designed, conducted, and written up by Teddy…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, academic institutions were forced to pivot toward online education. With the switch to online learning, e-proctoring became a popular choice to continue proctored exam assessments. Many concerns arose from this technology, including privacy, psychological, and performance concerns. With the resumption of in-person…

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is an important target of science teacher knowledge assessment. Most studies that have assessed the PCK across a large sample of science teachers used a text-based approach to elicit and assess the more declarative and static form of teachers' PCK. Recently, small-scale qualitative studies have adopted a novel…

The traditional format for neuroanatomy lab practical exams involves stations with a time limit for each station and inability to revisit stations. Timed exams have been associated with anxiety, which can lead to poor performance. In alignment with the universal design for learning (UDL), "Timed Image Question" and "Untimed Image…

College students report stress and anxiety when taking science courses, such as anatomy & physiology. Mindful breathing is a technique that can be used in the classroom before taking exams. To determine the impact of mindful breathing exercises on the student experience, students were randomly assigned to either course sections that included…

A long-established literature has found that anxiety about testing is negatively related to academic achievement. Yet there remains some debate as to whether this is simply due to less academically able pupils being more likely to develop education-related anxiety issues. This paper presents new evidence on this matter, focusing upon how test…

The inverse relationship between test anxiety and test performance is commonly explained by test-anxious students' tendency to worry about a test and the consequences of failing. However, other cognitive facets of test anxiety have been identified that could account for this link, including interference by test-irrelevant thoughts and lack of…

The Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) is a unidimensional scale designed to measure the cognitive aspect of test anxiety. The instrument has been adapted in several countries, and convincing psychometric properties have been found; however, uncertainties remain regarding its factor structure. Therefore, the aim of this study is twofold: to…

Advocates of meditation claim that it can improve various aspects of life, including health, attention, thinking, and learning. The purpose of this empirical, quantitative, between-subject study was twofold. First, it compared the effectiveness of meditation delivered through virtual reality versus video, as measured by students' test scores.…

This note highlights and illustrates the links between item response theory and classical test theory in the context of polytomous items. An item response modeling procedure is discussed that can be used for point and interval estimation of the individual true score on any item in a measuring instrument or item set following the popular and widely…

Test anxiety is a context-specific academic anxiety which can result in poorer academic and metacognitive performance. We assessed how the quantity and relative weight of assessments contribute to the effects of test anxiety on performance and metacognitive accuracy in a smaller seminar-style class on human memory (study 1) and a larger…

Online testing is now becoming more prevalent internationally, across different educational levels. However, little is known about the impact of this mode of testing on male and female students' anxiety levels and test performance. Conducted in an Indonesian sociocultural context which is under-represented in the international literature, this…

Student preference for use of notes during test-taking, and performance outcomes with and without notes, is documented. While alleviating testing anxiety, usage of notes does little to affect testing outcomes, either positively or negatively. This study, undertaken across four semesters, both with and without use of a note sheet, finds no…