High Levels of State or Trait Anxiety and Performance on Selected Verbal WAIS Subtests

Abstract

Upon entering a VA domiciliary Ss were given the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and WAIS subtests, Arithmetic (A), Similarities (S) and Digit Span (DS). Two analyses of variance were carried out among WAIS weighted scores on the three subtests for three groups of different state or trait anxiety levels (high, medium, and low). Analyses showed significant interactions between WAIS scaled scores and anxiety: p < .05 for state anxiety and p < .001 for trait anxiety. The high-anxiety group in each instance showed the classical expectation of a lower A and DS in comparison to S; performance on DS was highest for each medium anxiety group. The study of curvilinear relationships and interaction effects in anxiety was discussed.

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