Generated view: 7 sources whose Kunskapsbank note was filed under this theme, and the claims and candidates they link to.
Pupils and students with higher test anxiety get lower test scores and grades than calmer peers, at every school age studied: the link is negative and about r = −0.2 (small to moderate), not close to zero.
Serves: Q1 (How do humans actually learn, and what helps them learn best?)
Ages: grundskola-lag, grundskola-hog, gymnasium, vuxen-livslangt
Bounds: An association, not proof that anxiety causes lower results (weaker pupils may also become more anxious). Evidence on file: Robson, Johnstone, Putwain & Howard 2023 (Journal of School Psychology, DOI 10.1016/j.jsp.2023.02.003; full text): 76 studies, N = 53,617 children aged 5–12; maths r = −.21 (95% CI −.30 to −.13), literacy r = −.20 (−.29 to −.10), general school achievement r = −.23 (−.29 to −.16); some publication bias and heterogeneity. von der Embse, Jester, Roy & Post 2018 (Journal of Affective Disorders, DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2017.11.048; abstract only): 238 studies; significant negative relations to standardised tests, entrance exams and GPA, small to moderate, strongest in the middle grades. Kill-condition test survived 2026-11-03 (nightly attack): Caviola, Toffalini, Giofrè, Mercader Ruiz, Szűcs & Mammarella 2021 (Educational Psychology Review 34(1), 363–399, DOI 10.1007/s10648-021-09618-5; open access, full text read): meta-analysis of academic anxiety and maths performance (177 studies, 906,311 participants overall); test anxiety and maths performance r = −.23 (95% CI −.26 to −.19), high heterogeneity, children versus adults not a significant moderator. Maths only, correlational, and partly the same studies as von der Embse et al. 2018.
Attack record: 1 attack: 1 survived · Evidence links: 4 linked sources (4 supports)
4 link(s) from sources in this view.
C26 weakened
Acute stress just before or during a memory test lowers adults' recall of earlier-learned material by about a fifth of a standard deviation compared with no stress, more for emotional material, but only in studies that left out women taking hormonal contraceptives; where they were included, the average effect was about zero.
Serves: Q1 (How do humans actually learn, and what helps them learn best?)
Ages: vuxen-livslangt, overgripande
Bounds: Laboratory stressors (for example public speaking or cold water) shortly before or during retrieval of episodic memories, mostly in young adults; not chronic stress, not stress during learning (Shields et al. find that pattern differs), and not school exams directly. Evidence on file: Shields, Sazma, McCullough & Yonelinas 2017 (Psychological Bulletin, DOI 10.1037/bul0000100; full text): stress just before or during retrieval impaired memory, g = −.215 (95% CI −.346 to −.085; 31 studies, N = 1,410), larger for emotional than neutral material; Egger's test showed publication bias for these retrieval effects (t(29) = −3.27, p = .003), and trim-and-fill estimated one missing study, after which the impairment was still significant (p = .002), so the true effect may be somewhat smaller than −.215 (corrected 2026-11-03). Population bound (weakened 2026-11-04, nightly attack; Shields et al. 2017 full text, §Retrieval and Figure 9): of the moderators tested (age, sex, contraceptive exclusion, menstrual-phase exclusion, stressor type, memory task, encoding–retrieval delay, time of day), only exclusion of women taking hormonal contraceptives moderated stress effects on retrieval (t(8.1) = −3.44, p = .009; all other ps > .185): studies that excluded them g+ = −.294 (t(23.2) = −4.14, p < .001); studies that did not g+ = .101 (t(5.2) = 1.15, p = .302; the authors call it negligible). Caveats: "did not exclude" also covers studies that did not report exclusion, and the not-excluded subset is small (df = 5.2). Consistent with this, a registered-report experiment with 177 adults (82% women, about half of them on hormonal contraceptives; stress 10 minutes before the test) found no stress effect on recall or recognition (Marr, Sauerland, Otgaar, Quaedflieg & Hope 2021, Memory 29(3), 330–344, DOI 10.1080/09658211.2021.1893750; powered only for a medium effect). Klier & Buratto 2020 (Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, DOI 10.1590/2237-6089-2019-0077; abstract only): systematic review of 13 controlled studies (N = 962) of stress after learning and up to an hour before the test. Claim sentence shortened 2026-11-04 (Jonatan approved the short-claims rule): the subgroup sizes (excluded g+ = −.294; not excluded g+ = .101, ns) are kept above; meaning unchanged.
Attack record: 1 attack: 1 narrowed · Evidence links: 3 linked sources (2 supports, 2 limits)
4 link(s) from sources in this view.