Based on the summation principle (Weiss & Miller, 1971), the strength of audience-induced drive was manipulated by varying the size of an audience from 1 to 6 members. Male college subjects performed on two motor tasks, ball rolling and reaction time. Nervousness and activation levels were rated by subjects as well as members of an audience. Tests of linearity indicated that activation and nervousness increased as size of audience increased. Tests of linearity for both performance measures were nonsignificant and were therefore not in the direction predicted by drive summation.
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