Abstract

The plurpose of the present investigation was to study the relationship between stress and anxiety (trait) on the learning (TOT) of a pursuit rotor task. Subjects (N = 40) were categorized into high and low trait anxiety groups and randomly assigned into a high or low stress condition. Subjects were given 15 30-sec acquisition trials followed (24 hours later) by 10 30-sec relearning trials. After acquisition trials three and nine, the sstress conditions were given failure instructions. The results of the investigation failed to support the action decrement notion of consolidation theory. Subjects training under conditions of greater sstress and/or anxiety levels did not exhibit inferior performance scores during acquisition trials or superior learning scores after a 24-hour rest period. Verf.-Referat