Psychology

Anxiety has various effects on attention. Anxiety is both a psychological and physiological state where one is presented with a general feeling of uneasiness and worry. It differs from fear in that it is not normally triggered by any stimulus that is threatening. Anxiety arises from threats that are normally perceived to be uncontrollable. It is often a normal reaction when one is under stressful conditions. However, excessive anxiety results to anxiety disorder which leads to a decline in the efficiency, attention and the cognitive performance of an individual. The effects of anxiety have led to the formulation of Baddeleys model and the emergence of such theories as the processing efficiency theory and the attention control theory. This essay will establish the existing effects of anxiety on attention and give an overview of the processing efficiency theory and the attention control theory as well as the underlying assumptions. Also, the essay will focus on the Baddeleys model as well as surveys which depict that attention levels are affected by anxiety.

Baddeleys model and anxiety
There is an indebted compatibility between Baddeleys model and the anxiety-attention aspect. Baddeleys model explain that the working memory is subdivided into the central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer.

Central executive
The central executive is considered as the main supervisory part responsible for controlling and regulating the cognitive process. It is responsible for organizing information form different sources in a particular manner. In addition, it has the capacity of shifting between different tasks and differentiating between any form of attention or inhibition. Individuals with high anxiety affect the central executive making it difficult to switch from one task to another. The phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer are called the slave systems and their operations are regulated by the central executive.

The phonological or the articulatory loop is concerned with any phonological information. The loop is further divided into phonological store and the articulatory rehearsal component which has a capacity to revive any traces of information. The articulatory rehearsal component is normally affected by excessive anxiety. For instance, if individuals are required to say irrelevant things aloud, the whole articulatory rehearsal process is blocked impairing their memory capacity.

The other component of Baddeleys model is the visuospatial sketchpad which store information about what we visualize. It allows for manipulation of visual images such as colors and shapes. Research has indicated that high anxiety levels to affect the visuo-spatial sketch pad which consequently interferes with the visual attention. The visual attention is also affected by what individuals have been through in the past. In that it reduces attention to potential threat and response rate to threatening stimuli. For instance, when clinically anxious participants are shown some two words simultaneously a large percentage pay particular attention to the threat words leading to the conclusion that those with high anxiety levels exhibit increased attention towards any visual element that is most likely to be a threat.

The last component of Baddeleys model is the episodic buffer which links information in a chronological order. According to Baddeleys, this part is adversely affected by anxiety in a manner that encoding of information in the long term memory is interfered with. Baddley notes that, in old age the working memory is normally sensitive to any form of anxiety which consequently leads to decline in performance.

Processing efficiency theory and attention control theory
The processing efficiency theory by dominant theory in the literature of working memory. According to Eysenck, low concentration level arising from anxiety is attributed to the damage that anxiety has on the central executive and the phonological loop which are components of Baddeleys model. According to Eysenck (2008), the effects of high anxiety levels impact highly on the processing efficiency than on the processing effectiveness.To investigate this, two groups of high worriers and low worriers took part in an assessment test which was conducted under stressful conditions. The results of the test showed that, the low worriers were able to complete the test within a short duration of time than their counterparts. Of interest, was that the number of correct answers for the two groups did not differ much which led to the conclusion that the anxiety levels have more effect on the processing efficiency than on the effectiveness.

The attention control theory is considered as an advancement of the processing efficiency theory by Eysenck and Calvo. The attention control theory assumes that anxiety impairs the efficiency of goal directed attentional system. The theory further asserts that stimulus driven attentional systems increases there processing capabilities. The attention control theory states that trait anxiety interferes with balance between attentional control systems which directly affects goal directed motor tasks. This was proved when some participants took part in forced contractions which were relying on goal directed attentional systems. The survey was under both the emotional and non emotional conditions. From the survey, reaction time and the rate of change of force was calculated. The results indicated a decline in the target force level which led to the conclusions that, the effectiveness of high anxious individuals is affected by high levels of anxiety.

In addition, the theory states that a negative effect of excessive anxiety relies mainly on two executive functions which are inhibition and shifting. This was evident when arithmetical tasks were conducted on some low and high anxious students. The experiment was conducted under both the task switching and the non task switching conditions. The results from the simple experiment revealed that demands and negative effects were present in the task switching conditions than in the non-task conditions which confirms that anxiety impairs the attention control process.

Eysenck (2007) backed his attention control theory where he stated that high anxiety levels translate lack of concentration. In his opinion, the training techniques within a learning institution should be designed in a manner they do not  raise the anxiety levels among students.

Further observations from the study indicated that non-anxious students performed better than the anxious ones. In addition, the anxious students were found to use a lot of effort to cope with the non-anxious students which had long term effects in that if affected them psychologically. In the same experiment, the eye movements of both the anxious and the non-anxious students were recorded as they read through a story. The story had some materials which were not directly to it. The findings were that the anxious students paid some attention on the irrelevant words but the non anxious students just read through the story without paying much attention to the distracter words.

In a different learning institution, the effect of test anxiety on the attention and memory of students was evaluated in a group of undergraduate students. Cognitive tasks and assessment test were administered on the participants. The findings were that the score in evaluation test for the anxious students differed from that of the non anxious students but it was only on cognitive measures (Ansari, Richards, 2008). In that, the anxious students were slow in the attention measuring tasks. Cognitive interference, intrusive thoughts and low test performance were attributed to high anxiety levels and a restriction in the working memory capacity. The high-anxious individuals experienced task irrelevant thoughts which occupied a large part of the working memory capacity. Complex tasks were found to require a lot of working memory which is normally occupied by worries among the highly anxious individuals.

Researchers have identified test anxiety as a personality characteristic that triggers one to respond during threatening situations. Test anxiety was found to be high within the higher institutions of learning while it remained fairly constant in the lower institutions. Also, impaired performance was found to be correlated with anxiety and significant variance existed between the two. In tests which were to be subjected to critical evaluation, the anxious students were found to perform poorly but they performed well in tests conducted under game like conditions. The evaluation techniques used by instructors were also identified as a source of anxiety in learning institutions.

Hirsch and Hayes (2008) of the institute of Psychiatry conducted a further assessment on some individuals with low and high levels of anxiety. The individuals took a random key press activity while thinking about a current worry. The results of the assessment indicated that those with high levels of anxiety had a restricted capacity than their counterparts. The conclusion was that the residual memory capacity of high worriers is less when they are under stressful conditions.

In another survey, the working memory of a group of parachutists was evaluated on a non-jumping day, on landing with the parachute and also before exiting an aircraft with the parachute. The survey indicated that the participants have both processing and storage impairment working memory impairment prior to exiting from an aircraft and during the jumping and landing conditions. However, the processing efficiency was stable in a non-jumping day. This proves the previous processing efficiency theory which asserts that the executive function is normally affected by high levels of anxiety.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth noting that high anxiety levels always result in loss of concentration. This is evident when parachuting and also when evaluative tasks are being administered to students. The final recommendations about the ways of improving the capacity of the working memory is by conducting task under less stressful conditions and employing better evaluation techniques within the learning institutions. It leads to impaired, disrupted, disoriented and detracted state of the mind thus causing significant effect on human attention. Also worth noting, is the Baddeleys model which provides with an understanding that high anxiety levels do interfere with the central executive system and the phonological loop which consequently results to decreased attention in demanding tasks or under stressful conditions.