The relationship between anxiety‐stability, working memory and cognitive style

Abstract

While prior research indicates that relationships exist between anxiety‐stability and working memory, and cognitive style and anxiety‐stability, they have not been considered together. The aim of this study was to consider how anxiety‐stability is related to working memory, gender and style in interaction. The sample consisted of 179 12–13‐year‐old Year 8 secondary comprehensive school pupils in the UK. Teachers rated the level of anxiety‐stability of pupils. Pupils completed an assessment of working memory efficiency, the information processing index (IPI). They also did the cognitive styles analysis to determine their positions on the two fundamental cognitive style dimensions, which were indicated by two ratios: the Wholist‐Analytic ratio and the Verbal‐Imagery ratio. Working memory capacity and cognitive style interacted in their relationship with anxiety‐stability, such that higher memory was associated with a greater increased stability for Wholist‐Verbalisers and Analytic‐Imagers than for Analytic‐Verbalisers and Wholist‐Imagers. The results were discussed in terms of the unitary versus complementary nature of style combinations.

Keywords:

• cognitive style
• working memory
• anxiety

Notes

1. The cognitive styles analysis is available in various languages: English versions for the Australasian, North American, South African and UK contexts, and also in Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Malay, and Spanish.

2. In the published version of the information processing index, in order to raise the ceiling, the train length has been increased to six carriages and the total number of carriages to 85.