The Value Expectation Bias in Test Anxiety Individuals: Test Specificity or Threat Generality?
Poster No:
791
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Yuhong Ou1, Renlai Zhou1
Institutions:
1Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu
First Author:
Co-Author:
Introduction:
The value expectation (reward or punishment) of outcomes based on experience and current information (Inzlicht et al., 2018) decides whether to do and how much effort to put into performing the current task (Shenhav et al., 2013). Individuals with test anxiety have difficulty inhibiting test-related and test-unrelated threat stimuli (Zhang et al., 2019; Wei et al., 2021). We suggested that the excessive negative value expectation for threat stimuli played an important role. Thus, the current study investigated the value expectation towards test-related and test-unrelated threat stimuli in test anxiety individuals.
Methods:
27 high test anxiety individuals (HTA) (15 females) and 29 low test anxiety individuals (LTA) (22 females) were invited. The improved simple gambling task was employed. In this experiment, the two options were cards with test-related or test-unrelated threat words on the one side and cards with test-unrelated neutral words on the other side. The participants were informed that they had to try their best to explore the pattern between the option and feedback and obtain more benefits. The probability of both positive and negative feedback occurring was 50%.
An electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded continuously using a 64 Ag-AgCl electrodes elastic cap. EEGLAB (Version 13.0.0.1b) was used for off-line analysis. The FRN, △FRN(230-330ms), and P3 (340-440ms) components induced by feedback were analyzed. Letswave7 was used for time-frequency analysis. The ERD (300-500ms) in the theta (4-7Hz) band and the ERS (200-400ms) in the beta (13-18Hz) band were analyzed.
An electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded continuously using a 64 Ag-AgCl electrodes elastic cap. EEGLAB (Version 13.0.0.1b) was used for off-line analysis. The FRN, △FRN(230-330ms), and P3 (340-440ms) components induced by feedback were analyzed. Letswave7 was used for time-frequency analysis. The ERD (300-500ms) in the theta (4-7Hz) band and the ERS (200-400ms) in the beta (13-18Hz) band were analyzed.
Results:
FRN: The interaction among stimulus attribute, feedback type, and test anxiety was significant, F(3,162)= 7.209, p<.001. In the HTA group, both the test-related and test-unrelated threat stimuli induced a greater positive FRN amplitude than the corresponding neutral conditions following positive feedback. Conversely, the FRN amplitude induced by negative feedback was more negative in the test-related and test-unrelated threat conditions compared to the corresponding neutral conditions. No differences were observed in the LTA group. Moreover, the FRN amplitude induced by negative feedback following test-related and test-unrelated threat stimuli was significantly more negative in the HTA group than in the LTA group.
△FRN: The interaction between stimulus attribute and test anxiety was significant, F(2,108)= 3.532, p<.05. A more negative FRN difference was induced by the test-related and test-unrelated threat stimuli in the HTA group. No differences were observed in the LTA group. In addition, the HTA group showed a more negative FRN difference wave than the LTA group in the test-related condition.
P3: No significant interaction was found.
Theta: No significant interaction was found.
Beta: The interaction among stimulus attribute, feedback type, and test anxiety was significant, F(3,162)= 2.904, p<.05. In the LTA group, under the positive feedback condition, the ERD power after the neutral stimuli in the test-unrelated condition was stronger than those in the test-related condition. In the HTA group, under the negative feedback condition, the ERD power after test-related stimuli was stronger than those after test-unrelated stimuli; The ERD power after test-unrelated stimuli was weaker than those after the neutral stimuli. Additionally, it was found that the ERD power induced by negative feedback after test-unrelated stimuli was weaker in the HTA group than in the LTA group.
△FRN: The interaction between stimulus attribute and test anxiety was significant, F(2,108)= 3.532, p<.05. A more negative FRN difference was induced by the test-related and test-unrelated threat stimuli in the HTA group. No differences were observed in the LTA group. In addition, the HTA group showed a more negative FRN difference wave than the LTA group in the test-related condition.
P3: No significant interaction was found.
Theta: No significant interaction was found.
Beta: The interaction among stimulus attribute, feedback type, and test anxiety was significant, F(3,162)= 2.904, p<.05. In the LTA group, under the positive feedback condition, the ERD power after the neutral stimuli in the test-unrelated condition was stronger than those in the test-related condition. In the HTA group, under the negative feedback condition, the ERD power after test-related stimuli was stronger than those after test-unrelated stimuli; The ERD power after test-unrelated stimuli was weaker than those after the neutral stimuli. Additionally, it was found that the ERD power induced by negative feedback after test-unrelated stimuli was weaker in the HTA group than in the LTA group.
Conclusions:
Firstly, individuals with HTA showed weaker reward sensitivity and stronger punishment sensitivity towards both test-related and unrelated threat stimuli, which indicated the individuals with HTA had a negative value expectation for threat stimuli. Secondly, the individuals with HTA had a more negative value expectation for test-related stimuli.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Reward and Punishment
Social Cognition 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
EEG/MEG Modeling and Analysis
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
EEG 2
Keywords:
Affective Disorders
Anxiety
Cognition
ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
Emotions
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
·Figure1. ERP results. (A) The average FRN at Fz and its topographical distribution for all conditions. (B) The average FRN difference wave at Fz for all conditions.
·Figure2. ERSP results in the beta band. (A) LTA: The ERD (power) at Fz for the neutral stimuli in the test-related and test-unrelated conditions under the positive feedback condition. (B) HTA: The ERD