To explore the interactive relationship of anxiety and ability to conceptual level, data were obtained for 90 boys and 134 girls in nonvocational Grades 11 and 12 English classes. Ability and conceptual level correlated .25, anxiety and conceptual level correlated –.18, and ability and anxiety correlated –.20. Regression analysis showed that the interaction of ability and anxiety, which was disordinal, accounted for 1.6% of the variance in conceptual level scores. It is concluded that higher anxiety may minimize the correlation between ability and conceptual level but scores for conceptual level cannot be seen largely as a function of ability and anxiety constructs.
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