Expressive Writing Boosts High-Stakes
Exam Scores
Gerardo Ramirez
Sian L. Beilock
Human Performance Lab
Department of Psychology
University of Chicago
2012 LearnLab Summer Workshop
Making the Grade in the Midst of Stress
•
Performing at one’s best during academic
examinations can have significant pay-offs
•
But many testing situations create a high degree of
anxiety and lead students to Choke*
Why do students choke?
A Distraction Account
– Anxiety can create verbal worries which disrupts
working memory processes
– Working memory involved in the control and
regulation of information that is currently
being manipulated
22 x 43 =
A Pervasive Problem
– Distraction account central in understanding
•
•
•
•
High Pressure tests
High Test Anxiety
High Math Anxiety
Stereotype Threat
– Efforts to reduce the impact of anxiety:
• Focus attention on positive self identities/goals
• Distract attention away from worries
• Misattribute anxiety to a unrelated stimuli
• Advantages to avoid thinking about worries
(Ambady et al., 2004; DeCaro, Rotar, Kendra & Beilock, 2010; Ben-Zeev, Fein, & Inzligcht, 2005)
An Alternative Approach
• Focusing attention on negative information – through
expressive writing – can actually reduce the impact of
negative worries
• Expressive writing is a clinical technique that promotes
– Reduced ruminations and anxiety among incoming freshmen
– Higher working memory availability
• Research Question: Can a single bout expressive writing
serve as a robust intervention for helping students deal
with a salient form of anxiety
(Klein & Boals, 2001; Pennebaker & Beall,1986)
Hypothesis
• Expressive writing will afford students the opportunity to
off-load their performance worries in a manner that
encourages insight about the event (Study 1)
• These benefits should be particularly apparent among:
• Individuals who are most prone to worry during
examinations (Study 2 & 3)
• And those who bring long held anxieties to the table
(Study 4)
Study 1 Methods
Procedure:
Low Pressure
Pre Test
40 Math Prob.
High Pressure
Pressure
Instructions
• Our Primary DV was accuracy
Writing
Post Test
40 Math Prob.
Results for Study 1
Control
100
Unrelated Writing
Expressive Writing
Accuracy (% correct)
95
“I don’t want to spend all this time
thinking about the coming up
subtraction problems because that
thinking will make me more
and more nervous. I am doubtful that I
could improve.”
90
85
80
75
70
65
Low Pressure
Test
High Pressure
Test
Test
What drives our effects?
• Worry sentences
• Worry + Insight sentences
Summary of Study 1
• Expressive writing  offloading of worries 
gain of insight about negative test concerns
• An aid to students when it matters it matters the
most
• Can it aid those who are most prone to worry?
School Studies (2 and 3)
• Test Anxious Students: Characterized by
persistent worrying during testing
situations.
• Two randomized field experiments in high
school Biology classrooms
• Same intervention (1 year part)
Method Study 3 and 4
Procedure across the semester:
Test Anxiety
Measure
30 Day ….
Expressive Writing
Manipulation
…15 Days ...
3 days
Final Exam
• Teachers were blind to our manipulation
Obtained
Scores
Results for Study 2 and 3
[All P values > .58]
All P values > 0.60 [t(52)=2.08, p< .05]
Results for Study 2 and 3
Association between Test Anxiety and Final Exam
Performance
[Z(two-tailed) = –2.09, P < 0.04]
[r(56)=-.51, p<.001]
[r(50)=-.14, p=.33]
Summary for Study 2 and 3
Expressive writing allows test anxious students the
ability to demonstrate their true competency
The benefits of expressive writing are especially
apparent for students who are habitually anxious about
taking tests
Study 4
We lastly asked whether the benefits of expressive
writing would extend to math anxious students
Study 4: Math Anxiety Results
Study 5: Math Anxiety
High Math Anxiety
Low Math Anxiety
(Park, Ramirez & Beilock, in Prep)
General
Discussion
Study
5: Math
Anxiety
Expressive writing helps reduce the burden of anxiety
brought on by high stakes testing situations as well as more
stable forms of anxiety (e.g., test and math anxiety)
Expressive writing may help students gain insight into the
source of stress and afford them the ability to reexamine
their stressful experience
General
Discussion
Study
5: Math
Anxiety
Part of what characterizes academic success under anxiety
is the uncoupling of regions associated with the processing
of anxiety from those associated with WM activity
(Mattarella-Micke & Beilock, in prep)
Expressive writing via insight may be facilitating this
uncoupling**
StudyConclusion
5: Math Anxiety
Simple psych interventions can be the very effective in
bringing out the true competency of anxious students
Important to give students both the:
• Knowledge to succeed on examinations
• Tools to be able to express that knowledge when it
matters most.
Thank you
For more info see:
Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing About
Testing Worries Boosts Exam Performance in the
Classroom. Science, 331, 211-213.
Acknowledgements:
–
–
–
–
Adviser: Sian Beilock
Colleague: Daeun Park
Institute of Educational Sciences
National Science Foundation
Study 1 Data
Control
Accuracy (% correct)
100
Expressive Writing
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
Pretest
Posttest
Test