Abstract
There have been relatively few attempts to understand the effects of anxiety (whether regarded as a personality dimension or as a mood state) on task performance directly from the perspective of cognitive psychology. However, attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007) is an attempt to do precisely that. As is discussed in this chapter, it is assumed that there is an important distinction between positive attentional control and negative attentional control. It is also assumed that anxiety impairs the efficiency of both forms of attentional control. However, the adverse effects of such impaired efficiency on performance can be reduced or eliminated when anxious individuals utilise additional resources or effort. Research that provides general support for these assumptions is discussed, and implications for future research are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
The research discussed here was supported by a research grant from the Economic and Social Research Council awarded jointly to Michael W. Eysenck and to Nazanin Derakshan. We are extremely grateful for this support.
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Eysenck, M.W. (2010). Attentional Control Theory of Anxiety: Recent Developments. In: Gruszka, A., Matthews, G., Szymura, B. (eds) Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition. The Springer Series on Human Exceptionality. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1210-7_12
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