State anxiety and cardiovascular activity in an academic examination

Abstract

Exam is an academic stressor that frequently triggers the affective reaction of anxiety, as well as psychophysiological changes in the autonomic nervous system. Anxiety is a negative affective variable associated with a low level of performance. This study examined the impact of an academic exam on state anxiety (SA) levels and the effects on cardiovascular activity during its performance, as well as its possible influence on the score. The study group was composed of 122 female university students. Cardiovascular responses (heart rate [HR], diastolic blood pressure, and systolic blood pressure) were recorded continuously in three phases (before, during, and after the exam) for each participant. The SA was obtained with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) before the exam. Then, those with extremely low and high SA scores were assigned to the low and high anxiety groups, respectively. The exam score reflected the performance level. The results partially confirmed our hypotheses. The high SA group showed significant fluctuations in cardiovascular activity; in particular, the HRs were higher than in the low SA group during the exam (not in diastolic and systolic pressures, respectively).On the other hand, the high SA group showed lower performance expectations scores than the low SA group, and the level of performance was similar in the two groups. Therefore, the exam confirmed changes in the HR with respect to the SA level, with no significant impact on performance.

Anxiety and heart rate in a real-life class test in undergraduates choosing real-time or prerecorded oral presentations

“…5), possibly due to the performance's negative appraisal, whether live or prerecorded. This finding is not new, as several reports have documented the negative relationship between state anxiety and academic test performance (e.g., Gómez-Íñiguez et al 2021;Seipp 1991). The here-found connection could be due to higher state anxiety, possibly due to negative performance appraisal toward the end of the test, by either group, which was later indeed mirrored in lower grades.…”

The Effects of Foot Reflexology on Vital Signs: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…erefore, vital signs such as BP, HR, RR, and SpO 2 are essential for monitoring adverse events [1,31]. Furthermore, chronic stress and high anxiety levels are associated with altered physiological states, especially in the autonomic nervous system, which can lead to high HR, hypertension, and CVD [32,33]. Several RCTs have reported that foot reflexology affects cardiovascular-related parameters and reduces patient fatigue, but the results are inconsistent [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Tinjauan Literatur Atas Kesan Kebimbangan terhadap Prestasi Akademik

“…Khususnya, dalam konteks penilaian prestasi akademik, pelajarpelajar mengalami tahap tinggi kebimbangan yang selalunya mempunyai pengaruh negatif terhadap prestasi mereka. Kebimbangan boleh difahami sebagai pembolehubah afektif negatif yang dikaitkan dengan tahap prestasi yang rendah (Gómez-Íñiguez, Rodríguez, & Cantero, 2021). Kajian ini mempunyai objektif yang jelas sekali di mana kajian ini ingin meneliti kesan kebimbangan terhadap prestasi akademik melalui pendekatan ulasan naratif terhadap kajian-kajian lepas.…”