Emotion Self-Regulation,Psychophysiological Coherence,and Test Anxiety: Results from an Experiment Using Electrophysiological Measures |
| |
Authors: | Raymond Trevor Bradley Rollin McCraty Mike Atkinson Dana Tomasino Alane Daugherty Lourdes Arguelles |
| |
Institution: | (1) Institute for Whole Social Science, Aorangi Retreat, Hikurangi RD 1, Northland, New Zealand;(2) Center for Advanced Research, Neuron Dynamics, Appleton, WI 54915, USA;(3) HeartMath Research Center, Institute of HeartMath, 14700 West Park Avenue, Boulder Creek, CA 95006, USA;(4) Department of Health Science, California State University Polytechnic, Pomona, CA 91768, USA;(5) School of Educational Studies, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA 91711, USA |
| |
Abstract: | This study investigated the effects of a novel, classroom-based emotion self-regulation program (TestEdge) on measures of
test anxiety, socioemotional function, test performance, and heart rate variability (HRV) in high school students. The program
teaches students how to self-generate a specific psychophysiological state—psychophysiological coherence—which has been shown to improve nervous system function, emotional stability, and cognitive performance. Implemented as part
of a larger study investigating the population of tenth grade students in two California high schools (N = 980), the research reported here was conducted as a controlled pre- and post-intervention laboratory experiment, using
electrophysiological measures, on a random stratified sample of students from the intervention and control schools (N = 136). The Stroop color-word conflict test was used as the experiment’s stimulus to simulate the stress of taking a high-stakes
test, while continuous HRV recordings were gathered. The post-intervention electrophysiological results showed a pattern of
improvement across all HRV measures, indicating that students who received the intervention program had learned how to better
manage their emotions and to self-activate the psychophysiological coherence state under stressful conditions. Moreover, students
with high test anxiety exhibited increased HRV and heart rhythm coherence even during a resting baseline condition (without
conscious use of the program’s techniques), suggesting that they had internalized the benefits of the intervention. Consistent
with these results, students exhibited reduced test anxiety and reduced negative affect after the intervention. Finally, there
is suggestive evidence from a matched-pairs analysis that reduced test anxiety and increased psychophysiological coherence
appear to be directly associated with improved test performance—a finding consistent with evidence from the larger study. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|