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Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal

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Processing efficiency theory in children: Working memory as a mediator between trait anxiety and academic performance
Matthew Owens , Jim Stevenson , Roger Norgate & Julie A. Hadwin
a a a a b

Developmental Brain-Behaviour Unit, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

b

Hampshire Educational Psychology Service, Winchester, UK Version of record first published: 05 Aug 2008.

To cite this article: Matthew Owens , Jim Stevenson , Roger Norgate & Julie A. Hadwin (2008): Processing efficiency theory in children: Working memory as a mediator between trait anxiety and academic performance, Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 21:4, 417-430 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10615800701847823

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Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, October 2008; 21(4): 417430

Processing efciency theory in children: Working memory as a mediator between trait anxiety and academic performance

MATTHEW OWENS1, JIM STEVENSON1, ROGER NORGATE2, & JULIE A. HADWIN1

1

Developmental Brain-Behaviour Unit, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK & 2Hampshire Educational Psychology Service, Winchester, UK

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Abstract Working memory skills are positively associated with academic performance. In contrast, high levels of trait anxiety are linked with educational underachievement. Based on Eysenck and Calvos (1992) processing efficiency theory (PET), the present study investigated whether associations between anxiety and educational achievement were mediated via poor working memory performance. Fifty children aged 1112 years completed verbal (backwards digit span; tapping the phonological store/ central executive) and spatial (Corsi blocks; tapping the visuospatial sketchpad/central executive) working memory tasks. Trait anxiety was measured using the StateTrait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Academic performance was assessed using school administered tests of reasoning (Cognitive Abilities Test) and attainment (Standard Assessment Tests). The results showed that the association between trait anxiety and academic performance was significantly mediated by verbal working memory for three of the six academic performance measures (math, quantitative and nonverbal reasoning). Spatial working memory did not significantly mediate the relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance. On average verbal working memory accounted for 51% of the association between trait anxiety and academic performance, while spatial working memory only accounted for 9%. The findings indicate that PET is a useful framework to assess the impact of childrens anxiety on educational achievement.

Keywords: Trait anxiety, working memory, school, academic performance, children

Anxiety and Academic Performance Researchers have shown that anxiety is negatively related to educational outcome. For example, in a national psychiatric comorbidity study in the United States, it was found that individuals with an anxiety disorder (compared with a non-anxious control group) were 1.4 times (odds ratio) more likely to fail to complete high school or college (Kessler, Foster, Saunders, & Stang, 1995). Similarly, Van Ameringen, Mancini, and Farvolden (2003) found that around half of 201 adult patients with an anxiety disorder indicated that they had left school prematurely and in 24% anxiety was given as the primary reason for leaving. Further research has shown that students general affective dispositions, academic affect

Correspondence: Matthew Owens, Developmental Brain-Behaviour Unit, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. E-mail: m.owens@soton.ac.uk ISSN 1061-5806 print/ISSN 1477-2205 online # 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10615800701847823

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and emotion regulation all made a significant contribution to grade point average, over and above that made by cognitive variables, such as academic competency (Gumora & Arsenio, 2002). Related to this finding, shyness (a temperamental construct highly correlated with anxiety) was found to be negatively correlated with school administered tests of math (r 0 (.32) and English (r 0(.26) (Crozier & Hostettler, 2003). Related research investigating the impact of test anxiety on educational performance has shown similar findings. For example, Hembree (1988) reviewed 562 studies addressing the nature, effects and treatment of test anxiety. He found a homogeneous negative correlation between anxiety and aptitude/achievement (r 0(.29) and IQ testing (r 0(.23) and concluded that test anxiety causes poor academic performance. A subsequent combination of this review and other meta-analyses suggested that the magnitude of the average negative correlation between anxiety and academic attainment amounted to r 0(.21, representing a best guess as to the effect size for this relationship (Schwarzer, 1990). It was also shown that in 137 controlled treatment studies there was an average positive effect size (Cohens d) for the treatment group on test performance (d 0.39) and grade point average (d 0.61). Individuals who were treated for test anxiety demonstrated higher scores on educational tests compared with those in either a placebo or waiting list control group. More recently, Keogh, Bond, and Flaxman (2006) carried out a randomised controlled trial to test the effect of an anxiety reducing intervention (cognitive-behavioural stress management) in typically developing children. They found improved performance on General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) scores equivalent to an average letter grade higher for the intervention group compared to a control group who received their education as usual. Cognitive behavioural therapy has also been shown to improve parent-rated school performance with clinically anxious children (Wood, 2006). Working Memory Working memory has been defined as those mechanisms or processes that are involved in the control, regulation, and active maintenance of task-relevant information in the service of complex cognition (Miyake & Shah, 1999, p. 450). It coordinates information received via the senses and retrieved from long-term memory, for tracking, storage and manipulation (Logie, 1999). This dynamic function of working memory differentiates it from short-term memory. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) formulated their seminal multi-component model of memory in response to limitations in short-term memory models. Subsequently, researchers have argued that working memory is conceptually distinct from short-term memory, and is a better predictor of cognitive performance (Leather & Henry, 1994). The multi-component model of working memory is a tripartite system comprised of a master module (the central executive) and two slave subsystems (the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad (Baddeley & Hitch, 1994)). The phonological loop is proposed to hold and manipulate speech-based information, while the visuospatial sketchpad performs a similar function for visual and spatial information. It is thought that visuospatial memory can be further fractionated into visual and spatial components (Della Sala, Gray, Baddeley, Allamano, & Wilson, 1999). Baddeley (2002) noted that the concept of the central executive component was borrowed from Norman and Shallices (1986) supervisory attentional system (SAS). The purpose of the SAS was to account for the lack of attentional control in patients with frontal lobe damage. A fourth component, the episodic buffer, has been recently added to the model. Its role is to bind information from the slave systems into a unitary episodic representation (Allen, Baddeley, & Hitch, 2006; Baddeley, 2000).

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In previous studies, working memory has been shown to be associated with reading and language comprehension (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; MacDonald, Just, & Carpenter, 1992), reasoning (Kyllonen & Christal, 1990), and mental arithmetic (Barrouillet & Lepine, 2005; Logie, Gilhooly, & Wynn, 1994). It has also been found to positively correlate with performance in school subjects (Lehto, 1995). For example, associations have been found between childrens scores on working memory measures and their national curriculum assessment scores. Children who fail to achieve expected levels on national curriculum assessments have been found to have poor working memory function at 7 (Gathercole & Pickering, 2000) and 14 years of age (Gathercole, Pickering, Knight, & Stegmann, 2004). Similarly, working memory skills were found to be uniquely associated with teacher assessments of writing skills at school entry (Alloway et al., 2005). Processing Efficiency Theory (PET) Eysenck and Calvo (1992) formulated a processing efficiency theory (PET). Within this theory, high levels of worry related to negative evaluation are proposed to drain cognitive resources. In addition, task-irrelevant thoughts associated with increased worry lead to diminished working memory capacity. With a limited capacity to perform working memory operations, there is an increased likelihood that task efficiency will be reduced and greater amounts of effort or time are required to achieve typical levels of performance on cognitive tasks. In addition, for complex tasks that already make heavy demands on working memory, effectiveness (performance levels) will also be impaired. Because adverse effects of anxiety on cognitive performance are proposed to be greater on tasks that place heavier demands on working memory processing and storage, the role of the central executive is proposed to be particularly affected. Adverse effects are also predicted to be more acute for processes involving the phonological loop (compared with the visuospatial sketchpad) due to the fact that worrisome thoughts associated with anxiety typically involve verbal activity rather than imagery (Rapee, 1993). In support of PET, Markham and Darke (1991) found that anxiety-related deficits emerged in difficult verbal but not spatial reasoning tasks and no deficits were found on less difficult verbal or spatial memory tasks. Further research showed that high anxious (compared with low anxious) individuals made slower decisions on a grammatical reasoning task and disproportionately so under a simultaneous memory load condition (MacLeod & Donnellan, 1993). This finding was replicated by Derakshan and Eysenck (1998), who found that high anxious and defensive high anxious individuals (compared to low anxious and repressor individuals) were disproportionately slower in their reasoning speed when faced with simultaneous high memory load. Importantly, the interplay between anxiety and working memory has also been demonstrated in children, where anxious individuals have shown less efficiency on verbal working memory tasks in terms of increased mental effort and increased time taken to complete tasks (Hadwin, Brogan, & Stevenson, 2005). More recently, PET has been integrated with attentional control theory (ACT; Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). Eysenck and colleagues proposed that this integration provides a more comprehensive account of the effects of anxiety on central executive performance. In both models, working memory represents a specific mechanism that could potentially underpin the effect of anxiety on educational outcome. In support of this proposition, Aronen, Vuontela, Steenari, Salmi, and Carlson (2005) found that poor working memory functions were associated with academic problems and with symptoms of anxiety and depression. The authors suggested that it is possible that anxiety/depressive

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symptoms affect working memory function and the ability to concentrate, being thus the primary cause of poor academic achievement (p. 41). These authors did not formally test a mediational hypothesis. However, the results of their study and the theoretical background provided by Eysenck and Calvo (1992) suggest that working memory potentially mediates the relationship between anxiety and academic performance. The present study explored the possibility that the association between trait anxiety and academic performance will be mediated by working memory. Because PET assumes that the negative effects of anxiety will be greater on tasks that use the central executive and phonological loop components of working memory, it was expected that significant mediation of trait anxiety on academic tests would emerge in verbal (and not spatial) working memory. Method Participants

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Fifty pupils (26 boys, 24 girls) were recruited from two different secondary schools in Hampshire, UK. The sample was drawn from Year 7 children who were either 11 or 12 years old (M011.3, SD 00.4). Head teachers were approached regarding the study and subsequently information letters were sent to parents/guardians asking for consent for their child to participate in the study. Pupils also gave their informed consent to participate by signing a consent form on the day of testing. Anxiety Measure The StateTrait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC). The STAIC (Spielberger, Edwards, Lushene, Montuori, & Platzek, 1973) consists of two 20-item scales, one measuring the current level of anxiety (state) and the other measuring the typical level of anxiety (trait). The latter scale uses a 3-point (1 0almost never, 2 0sometimes, or 3 0often) Likert-type scale, where higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety. It is assumed to be unidimensional and as such a single global score can be found by summing the scores on all items (maximum score 060). Internal consistency for the STAIC has been good, with Cronbachs alpha of .91 reported by Muris, Merckelbach, Ollendick, King, and Bogie (2002), and .85 in the current sample. Working Memory Tasks The Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA). The AWMA (Alloway, 2007) battery is comprised of 12 tests and is designed to tap the three components of working memory: the central executive, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). It has been found to have acceptable testretest reliability (four weeks apart) with correlations ranging from r 0.64 (non-word recall) to r 0.84 (digit recall) (Alloway, Gathercole, & Pickering, 2006). The backwards digit recall test was used from this battery to tap verbal working memory. Here children are verbally presented with sequences of digits, and are asked to repeat them in reverse order. The first block of trials contains two digits, and one digit is added over successive trials. The test stops after the sixth block, or until the child makes three errors on a given level which invokes the stop rule. The number of lists correctly recalled is scored with the untested lists also adding to the score (minimum 0, maximum 36).

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The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). The CANTAB (2004) uses non-verbal tasks to measure a range of executive functions. Scoring on the tasks is automated by the software. The neural correlates of the CANTAB tasks have been studied and validated in neuroimaging studies with adults (Baker et al., 1996; Sahakian & Owen, 1992). More recently, the validation of the CANTAB for use with children has been established (Luciana, 2003). The spatial span task was used from the CANTAB. This task is a computerised version of the Corsi blocks tapping test. Children are asked to follow sequences of squares that light up on the screen (minimum 2, maximum 9) and then copy the sequence after the computer has finished. The test stops after three incorrect attempts at a given sequence level. Academic Performance The Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT). The CAT (Lohman, Hagen, & Thorndike, 2003) is the most widely used school assessment of reasoning ability in the UK (Strand, 2002). CAT scores are indicators of performance in that they predict future national curriculum test scores. For example, the CAT mean score has been shown to be highly correlated with key stage 2 tests (r 0.80) (NFER Nelson, 2005). In an evaluation study measuring over 100,000 Year 7 children on the CAT in 1998 and following them through to their GCSE completion year, a significant correlation of a similar magnitude (r 0.70) between standardised mean CAT scores and a GCSE total points score was found (NFER Nelson, 2004). The three sections of the CAT (measuring verbal, quantitative and non-verbal reasoning) take 45 minutes each to complete and are administered by schools. Scores are standardised with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. National Curriculum Standard Assessment Tests (SATs). The national curriculum tests are indicators of academic competence that are taken in all schools in England. The tests use methods and materials developed and validated by the qualifications and curriculum authority. At the end of key stage 2 (from 7 to 11 years) pupils take standardised tests in math, English and science. Although each subject area is comprised of several different tests, the overall mark for each area has a range of 0100, with higher scores indicating better performance. The present study used raw scores for math, English and science. Procedure Participants were tested individually in a quiet room at the school. The study was briefly explained to the participants and they were asked to complete a consent form. The trait form of the STAIC was completed first and then the working memory tasks, which were presented on a laptop computer. Half of the participants completed the AWMA task first and half completed the CANTAB first. The results of the CAT and SATs tests that had already been administered were collected from each school. Data Analysis This study tested the hypothesis that the association between trait anxiety and academic performance is mediated by verbal working memory (see Figure 1). The main concern is whether there is a difference between the coefficient for the predictor on the outcome before and after controlling for the mediator (i.e., cc in Figure 1). If the relationship between predictor and criterion reduces to zero after controlling for the mediator, then

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Trait Anxiety

Academic Performance

Working Memory

Trait Anxiety

c'

Academic Performance

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Figure 1. The hypothesised mediation model, where the association between trait anxiety and academic performance is mediated by working memory. c represents the association between predictor and outcome before controlling for the mediator. c? represents the association between predictor and outcome after controlling for the mediator. cc? represents the size of the mediation effect. ab is equivalent to cc (Mackinnon et al., 1995).

perfect mediation is said to have occurred. Evidence for partial mediation is demonstrated when the relationship is significantly reduced, but not to zero. Recent research has shown that the classical method of testing mediation (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Judd & Kenny, 1981) is limited because it does not provide a direct hypothesis test for mediation and it has low statistical power (Dearing & Hamilton, 2006). MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, and Sheets (2002) showed that the Baron and Kenny approach can have power as low as 10% to detect small effects, even with samples as large as N 01000. The authors also suggested that the high type II error rates it produces are mainly due to the requirement of demonstrating a significant main effect (path c in Figure 1) before assessing the mediation per se. This approach may be unrealistic in psychological research, especially when small or moderate effects are to be detected in small samples (Shrout & Bolger, 2002). A similar argument has been made relating to the requirement of testing paths a and b in Figure 1 (Preacher & Hayes, 2004). Alternative methods (MacKinnon et al., 2002) involve finding the product of coefficients (a and b in Figure 1). This process has been shown to be equivalent to the difference between the coefficient for the predictor on the outcome before and after controlling for the mediator (cc in Figure 1) (MacKinnon, Warsi, & Dwyer, 1995). That is, ab is an estimation of the size of the mediation effect. Estimating whether this effect is non-zero (i.e., there is significant mediation) has traditionally been tested using the method outlined by Sobel (1982, 1986) which involves calculating confidence intervals based on a normal distribution. The Sobel test is recommended by Baron and Kenny as a final step in testing mediation. However, given that with small sample sizes (i.e., B400) the product of two variables is often highly skewed (MacKinnon et al., 2002; Shrout & Bolger, 2002), using the Sobel test is likely to result in failure to detect mediation when it actually exists. The use of bootstrapping techniques to empirically estimate the distribution of ab and a bias-corrected confidence interval to account for the departure from normality in the product variable has recently been recommended as a method for testing mediation (Dearing & Hamilton, 2006; Shrout & Bolger, 2002). Indeed, MacKinnon, Lockwood, and Williams (2004) showed that

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bias-corrected confidence intervals give the most accurate estimates when assessing mediation in small sample sizes. In the present study, AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle, 2006) was used to calculate standard regression coefficients and bootstrapped estimates of the indirect effect, along with bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals. One thousand bootstrap resamples were requested using generalised least squares estimation. To assess whether the mediation effects in the verbal and the spatial working memory models were different from one another, indirect effects were converted into percentages and then re-analysed for significant differences. This process was achieved by estimating a standard error of the difference between percentages using the formula displayed in Eq. (1), where P1 and P2 are the verbal and spatial percentages, respectively. s P1(100 ( P1) P2(100 ( P2) SE P1(P20 ' N N

(1)

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The 95% confidence intervals were then calculated by multiplying the standard error by 1.96 and adding the product to the difference for the upper bound and subtracting the product for the lower bound. Results Table I shows the means, standard deviations, and zero-order correlations between the study variables. Regression coefficients were calculated to assess the strength of the associations in each of the paths illustrated in Figure 1. The coefficients and associated pvalues are given in Table II. Trait anxiety was negatively associated with math and quantitative reasoning. Trait anxiety was also negatively associated with English, science, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. These associations were, however, nonsignificant. Verbal working memory was positively associated with all six academic performance measures. Conversely, spatial working memory was not related to math, English, science, verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning, but was marginally associated with non-verbal reasoning. Trait anxiety was marginally associated with verbal working memory, but not with spatial working memory. Estimates of the indirect effect (ab in Figure 1) were tested for all academic tests, whether the association between predictor and outcome (a) was statistically significant or not to avoid committing a type II error (see Shrout & Bolger, 2002 for the rationale behind testing mediation in the absence of a main effect). The hypothesised mediation model (see Figure 1) is a just identified model and results in zero degrees of freedom and therefore no goodness of fit indices, such as chi-square, or RMSEA are calculated. Significant indirect effects were found between trait anxiety and math, quantitative reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, via verbal working memory. Standardised coefficients and bias-corrected confidence intervals are shown for the indirect effects on the six academic tests in Table III. Inspection of the confidence intervals in Table III highlighted that for math, quantitative reasoning and non-verbal reasoning the standardised indirect paths were significant. For the remaining academic performance measures, zero was barely contained within each confidence interval, and a large part of the estimate was in the negative region. The size of the mediated effect was similar for all academic tests giving an average standardised coefficient of .12. The average standardised coefficient for the unmediated path between trait anxiety and academic performance (a in Figure 1) across the six tests was (.24. These

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Table I. Means, standard deviations and zero-order correlations between study variables. Variable 1. 2. 3. 4. Math English Science Quantitative reasoning 5. Verbal reasoning 6. Non-verbal reasoning 7. Trait anxiety 8. Verbal working memory 9. Spatial working memory M (SD) 63.44 54.43 60.44 101.12 (19.88) (16.03) (11.78) (14.40) 1 * .75** .85** .84** .65** .77** 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

* .74** .63** .65** .77**

* .71** .66** .75**

* .65** .78** * .64**

102.58 (14.39) 103.24 (16.07) 34.27 (6.03) 12.84 (4.39) 6.14 (1.37)

(.28* (.25 (.18 (.30* (.16 (.25 * .49** .53** .42** .44** .44** .48** (.27 .23 .10 .13 .26 (.00 .27

(.16 .29* *

Note. p B.05; **pB.01. N050.

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data suggest that verbal working memory partially mediates the relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance and this mediator explains 50.00% of the relationship. Even though spatial working memory was weakly associated with the other measures, indirect effects were nevertheless explored to guard against type II error and to compare the results with verbal working memory. No indirect effects for spatial working memory were found (see Table IV).
Table II. Regression coefcients and associated p-values for the paths in the mediation models. Trait anxiety and academic performance (path c in Figure 1) Math English Science Quantitative reasoning Verbal reasoning Non-verbal reasoning b p-Value

(.28 (.25 (.18 (.30 (.16 (.25 Verbal working memory

.04 .08 .21 .04 .25 .07 Spatial working memory b p-Value

Working memory and academic performance (path b in Figure 1) Math English Science Quantitative reasoning Verbal reasoning Non-verbal reasoning Trait anxiety and working memory (path a in Figure 1) Verbal working memory Spatial working memory

p-Value

.49 .53 .42 .44 .44 .48 b

B.01 B.01 B.01 B.01 B.01 B.01 p-Value

.23 .10 .13 .26 (.001 .27

.09 .48 .37 .06 .99 .05

(.27 (.16

.05 .27

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Table III. Estimation of the mediated (ab) association between trait anxiety and academic performance, via verbal working memory. Standardised indirect effect (b) (.12 (.13 (.11 (.10 (.11 (.12 Bias-corrected 95% confidence interval ((.34, (.00) ((.31, .02) ((.33, .00) ((.33, (.01) ((.29, .00) ((.37, (.00)

Measure Math English Science Quantitative reasoning Verbal reasoning Non-verbal reasoning

SE of b .08 .08 .08 .07 .07 .09

p-Value .05 .08 .05 .03 .05 .04

Note. The standardised indirect effect represents the amount of the association between trait anxiety and each of the six academic performance measures that is accounted for by working memory. That is, it is a measure of mediation. N050.

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To assess the differences between the indirect effects for verbal and spatial working memory, indirect effects were converted into percentages to indicate the extent to which each mediator explains the initial relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance. In addition, standard errors and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to assess whether the difference between the verbal and spatial indirect effects was significant. Table V shows that verbal working memory explained an average of 51.00% of the initial relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance, whereas spatial working memory accounted for an average of 8.63%. The differences between the percentages for verbal and spatial working memory were significant for all six academic performance measures, indicating that verbal working memory was a significantly stronger mediator than spatial working memory. Discussion The present study assessed the relationship between trait anxiety and working memory on academic performance in children. It explored the possibility, derived from PET (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992), that the negative association between trait anxiety and academic performance could be mediated by working memory. The results showed that verbal working memory was positively related to academic outcome and this result is consistent with prior research (Gathercole et al., 2004; Lehto, 1995). The results also highlighted that self-report trait anxiety was negatively related with some academic tests (Crozier &
Table IV. Estimation of the mediated (ab) association between trait anxiety and academic performance, via spatial working memory. Standardised indirect effect (b) (.03 (.01 (.02 (.03 .00 (.04 Bias-corrected 95% confidence interval ((.17, ((.12, ((.15, ((.15, ((.04, ((.19, .01) .02) .03) .01) .10) .01)

Measure Math English Science Quantitative reasoning Verbal reasoning Non-verbal reasoning

SE of b .04 .03 .04 .04 .03 .04

p-Value .15 .39 .36 .13 .64 .16

Note. The standardised indirect effect represents the amount of the association between trait anxiety and each of the six academic performance measures that is accounted for by working memory. That is, it is a measure of mediation. N050.

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Table V. Differences between the amount of the initial relationship between trait anxiety and the academic performance measures accounted for by verbal and spatial working memory. Indirect effect of verbal working memory (%) 42.86 52.00 61.11 33.33 68.75 48.00 Indirect effect of spatial working memory (%) 10.71 4.00 11.11 10.00 0.00 16.00 95% Confidence interval (15.98, (31.71, (33.93, (7.85, (55.89, (14.93, 48.32) 64.29) 66.07) 31.23) 81.61) 49.07)

Measure Math English Science Quantitative reasoning Verbal reasoning Non-verbal reasoning

Difference 32.15 48.00 50.00 23.33 68.75 32.00

SE of difference 8.25 8.31 8.20 7.90 6.56 8.71

Note. The 95% confidence intervals do not contain zero and so the differences between verbal and spatial working memory indirect effects are significant for all measures. N050.

Hostettler, 2003; Hembree, 1988; Schwarzer, 1990). The association between trait anxiety and working memory was marginally significant for verbal working memory and was not significant for spatial working memory. The present findings are broadly consistent with PET and demonstrate that anxiety was more related to working memory processes that tap the phonological loop and the central executive, rather than the visuospatial sketchpad (Eysenck et al., 2007). The present study found that the association between trait anxiety and academic performance was partially mediated by verbal working memory on three tests (math, nonverbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning). There was also a suggestion in the data of similar partial mediation, although not statistically significant, on the remaining three tests (English, science and verbal reasoning). Overall, the indirect effect of trait anxiety on academic performance, through verbal working memory, is likely to amount to about half that of the simple association between trait anxiety and academic performance. This finding emphasises the importance of integrating cognition and emotion in developmental research, and specifically in relation to understanding academic underperformance in children (e.g., Blair, 2002; Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000). Derived from PET (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992) and empirical research (Derakshan & Eysenck, 1998; Hadwin et al., 2005; MacLeod & Donnellan, 1993) anxiety is proposed to interfere with working memory by reducing effectiveness and efficiency of task performance. This study extends previous research to highlight that PET represents a viable model with which to understand educational underachievement in childrens anxiety. Using cross-sectional data it highlighted that one important mechanism through which anxiety affects school performance is working memory (see also Aronen et al., 2005). Given the cross-sectional nature of the present study, however, it was not possible to draw any conclusions regarding causal relationships between anxiety and academic performance. Longitudinal studies are needed to fully understand the relationship between anxiety and academic performance (Hopko, Crittendon, Grant, & Wilson, 2005; Musch & Broder, 1999; Schwarzer, 1990). Further research should aim to test the relationship between anxiety and academic performance over time in order to tease out the causal relationships between variables. The results of the present study also suggest that verbal working memory and the central executive are more important than spatial working memory in understanding educational performance. In support of this finding, recent research with school children has found that test anxiety was negatively associated with a range of intelligence tests, with the exception of a spatial test (picture recall). This test was insensitive to worry, emotionality, lack of self-

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confidence, and a test anxiety factor score (Meijer & Oostdam, 2007). In addition, research with adults has shown that anxiety can disrupt performance on a spatial working memory task when the secondary task involves the use of the central executive and not the phonological or visuospatial sketchpad (Eysenck, Payne, & Derakshan, 2005). Eysenck et al. (2007) used this evidence to argue that the central executive is the component of working memory most adversely affected by anxiety. One caveat in relation to this interpretation in the present study is that the spatial working memory task used was less complex than the verbal task (i.e., spatial sequences had to be recalled in the order they were presented and not backwards, as in the verbal task). This difference leaves open the possibility that complexity was a confounding factor in the current results. Other studies have shown that both verbal and non-verbal components of working memory are important in predicting educational outcomes (Jarvis & Gathercole, 2003). Holmes and Adams (2006), for example, found that visuospatial working memory is a good predictor of math ability with younger children. In relation to the present findings, a further complication arises from evidence that spatial interference can selectively affect backwards digit span (Li & Lewandowsky, 1995). Similarly, Hoshi et al. (2000) showed that a backward digit span task activated the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex more in both hemispheres, compared with forward digit span task. Their study also found that individuals who showed right hemisphere activation could recall longer backward digit strings than those with left hemisphere activation. Although this study had a limited sample (N 08), it suggests that backwards digit span tasks engage the working memory system to a greater extent than forwards and implicate visuospatial, as well as verbal working memory. Moreover, Shackman et al. (2006) found evidence to suggest that anxiety selectively disrupts spatial working memory, while sparing the verbal domain. Therefore, future research in this area should continue to examine both measures of verbal and spatial working memory and ensure that task complexity is carefully matched. In summary, the present study represents an integration of cognitive and emotional factors in investigating academic underachievement in school children. The findings are consistent with the basic premise of PET that anxiety can interfere with working memory. They extend the limits of this model and suggest that it can be usefully applied to educational research. This research framework helps to qualify the simple relationship between anxiety and academic performance found in previous studies and serves to explicate the mechanisms through which anxiety is most likely to affect academic performance.

Acknowledgements This research was funded by an ESRC CASE studentship (awarded to Julie Hadwin, Jim Stevenson, and Roger Norgate, award number PTA-033-2004-0052) and Hampshire Educational Psychology Service. The authors would like to thank the parents, teachers, and children of Redbridge Community School, and Perins School for their participation, as well as the members of the Developmental Brain-Behaviour Unit at Southampton University for their insightful comments on this programme of research. References
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