Anxiety Test: Experimental study on Heart Rate Variability during testing exam in university students

Abstract

Defined as a separate construct of anxiety, text anxiety occurs when individuals find themselves in evaluative situations, such as in the formal testing environments found in education (Tobias, 1979; Hill e Wigfield, 1984). Debilitating anxiety can disrupt mental processes, especially when the evaluative task is demanding, as is the case in formal academic assessment
(Wachelka & Katz, 1999). However it is generally accepted that a small degree of anxiety can act as a motivator, to minimize the otherwise adverse effects of anxiety. Manifestations of anxiety can be physiological, cognitive or a combination of both (Hembree, 1988).
The anxiety that the students perceive were investigated quantitatively and qualitatively (Bonaccio, Charlie, 2008; 2010). Self-confidence have a strong relationship with examination anxiety. Other factors which have been investigated and had a significant positive correlation with students’ examination anxiety consisted of the number of the students in a class, region of education system, the reactions of school staffs, teachers and parents toward students’ drop down (Moosavi et al., 2008).
Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric disorders (Kessler RC. et al. 2007), and one of the most costly (Kessler RC 2002). Anxiety disorders also increase risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Härter et al., 2003); Vogelzangs et al., 2010) and mortality (Roest et. al., 2010; Janszky et. al., 2010; Shibeshi et al., 2007) due to a decrease of the natural Heart Rate Variability over time, commonly measured by electrocardiogram (ECG) (Dekker et al., 2000; Thayer et al., 2000; 2010).