以行動裝置進行點偵測任務訓練對臺灣高中生考試焦慮與情緒調節之成效初探

Effectiveness of a Mobile-Based Dot Probe Task Program in Alleviating Test Anxiety and Enhancing Emotional Regulation in Taiwanese High School Students

過度的考試焦慮會使學生無法集中注意力，從而影響表現。近來研究發現，點偵測訓練可以有效降低考試焦慮，但這些研究通常缺乏本土化和生態環境中的應用實證。本研究設計了一款使用中文考試相關字詞作為刺激物的APP訓練程式，允許學生遠距進行點偵測訓練。實驗在學生的兩次期考之間，為期六週，每週三次，每次十分鐘。在訓練前後，我們測量受試者的情境與特質焦慮量表及情緒調節量表的得分，並在第一次和第二次期中考前五天測量生理指標。本研究共招募了13名高中生，其中12名完成了訓練。成對t檢定結果顯示，點偵測訓練降低了受試者的情境和特質焦慮，促進了情緒調節能力，且部分降低生理激發。然而，本研究未發現注意力偏誤改善的明顯效果。由於缺乏對照組，本研究結果尚無法確認訓練的成功性。建議未來研究應擴大樣本並加入對照組，以增強統計效力，同時也能提供更可靠的基礎來評估點偵測訓練對考試焦慮的實際效果，從而更有效地確認研究假設的正確性。此外，若能調整生理指標的收集時間，可能更有效地掌握考試焦慮引發的生理變化。本研究是臺灣首次探討使用遠距行動裝置進行點偵測訓練對降低高中生考試焦慮的影響，除提供實證建議，也為臺灣注意力偏誤修正研究奠定了基礎。

Test anxiety refers to a specific anxious response experienced by individuals during examinations, evaluations, or competitions. Epidemiological data on test anxiety in Taiwanese students remain limited. However, globally, the prevalence of test anxiety across educational stages ranges from 15% to 25%. The severity of test anxiety increases with age, peaking during high school and junior high school years. Excessive test anxiety in adolescents results in academic underperformance and poor learning outcomes. In addition, test anxiety leads to cognitive problems, such as negative self-evaluation and apprehension of underachievement and low self-esteem; physiological problems, such as accelerated heart rate, rapid breathing, and increased blood pressure; and behavioral problems, such as nail-biting or looking around nervously. Although test anxiety is common among students, excessive anxiety can reduce their ability to perform effectively in tests, thereby affecting their academic achievement. Moreover, excessive test anxiety can reduce students’social functioning and overall well-being. The aforementioned effects of test anxiety are mediated through reduced concentration. Attentional bias refers to individuals’tendency to disproportionately focus on highly threatening stimuli during information processing. Empirical studies have demonstrated that individuals with high levels of anxiety are more likely to focus on high-threat stimuli.
Dot probe task (DPT), a form of attention bias modification (ABM) training, helps reduce attentional bias by training individuals to shift their focus away from high-threat stimuli. This task frees cognitive resources from threatening stimuli, thereby promoting emotional regulation and reducing test anxiety in students. However, the therapeutic effects of ABM remain inconclusive. Moreover, multiple gaps remain in the literature on the effectiveness of DPT in alleviating students’test anxiety. First, the effectiveness of DPT is influenced by the intervention location—school or home (remote). Thus, further empirical research is needed before the widespread application of DPT. Second, whether informal academic tests genuinely elicit test anxiety–related emotions in students remains unclear. Third, test anxiety has been mainly using self-report questionnaires; very few studies have included diverse physiological indicators. Finally, most studies have implemented computer-based DPT programs; computers are less accessible than mobiles. The effectiveness of mobile-based DPT programs remain to be evaluated. Nevertheless, compared to conventional psychological treatments, computerized and online ABM therapy offers a relatively cost-effective option, making it worthy of further investigation.
In this study, we developed a mobile-based DPT program for Taiwanese students. This program was developed using test anxiety–related words as culturally relevant stimuli. It lasted for 6 consecutive weeks. A total of 18 DPT sessions (each lasting 10 min) were conducted between two mid-term tests; the sessions were held thrice a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Students’daily academic tests were integrated into the program to closely simulate real-life test scenarios. Their heart rate, heart rate variability, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured during tests. We hypothesized that the DPT program would significantly reduce students’state and trait anxiety, enhance their emotional regulation ability, mitigate attentional bias, and prevent anxiety-related physiological changes. Physiological indicators were measured 5 days before the mid-term tests. This study included 13 high school students; of them, 12 students completed the training. Paired t tests revealed that the DPT program effectively reduced students’state and trait anxiety, enhanced their emotional regulation ability, and suppressed (partially) physiological arousal. However, no significant improvement was observed in attentional bias.
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first empirical exploration of ABM among Taiwanese high school students. However, the absence of a control group posed a significant limitation to the study’s design, as it restricted our ability to isolate the true impact of the intervention from other confounding factors. Our findings suggest that the mobile-based DPT program can help alleviate high school students’state and trait anxiety and enhance their emotional reappraisal ability. Our study was exploratory in nature; thus, future studies should expand the sample size and include a control group to enhance statistical power, improve the representativeness and generalizability of the findings, and offer a reliable basis for evaluating the actual effects of DPT on test anxiety, thereby allowing for a conclusive evaluation of our hypothesis.
Notably, we recruited students from advanced classes, a group that may exhibit different levels of test anxiety compared with the general student population. We did not compare intervention efficacy between students with high anxiety levels and those with low anxiety levels; this limits the broader applicability of our findings, necessitating further analyses for differentiating between these groups. Furthermore, our program exerted no significant effects on attentional bias; this finding may be attributable to the insufficient intensity of the stimulus used in the study or the lack of motivation and environmental pressure during home-based training. Furthermore, different forms of ABM (e.g., stimuli presented as text versus images) may influence the manifestation of attention bias in different ways (Parsons et al., 2019). Future studies should explore methods to increase the intensity of stimuli to better induce anxiety responses in participants. Additionally, incorporating game elements into the intervention design may enhance students’motivation for home training, thereby improving engagement and effectiveness.
Our program did not significantly improve students’physiological measurements, possibly because they were healthy adolescents, not clinical patients; this made it difficult for us to detect test anxiety–related physiological changes. Furthermore, the measurements were performed too far from the test dates to accurately capture anxiety-related physiological changes during actual test scenarios. The extent to which subjective anxiety-related changes correspond to objective physiological changes remains unclear. To address these limitations and enhance measurement accuracy, future studies should consider using long-term wearable physiological monitoring devices, which may provide comprehensive data on the physiological effects of ABM. Overall, the physiological findings from our cohort do not fully support the efficacy of the DPT program in reducing in test anxiety.
Evaluating the efficacy of ABM training using only changes in attentional bias, self-report scales, and physiological measurements may pose significant methodological limitations. These methods, while valuable, may not provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving the intervention’s effects. To address these gaps, further empirical research is needed to substantiate the efficacy of ABM in reducing test anxiety among high school students. Future studies should also incorporate advanced neuroimaging techniques to assess changes in brain network activity before and after ABM training. Such approaches can help identify specific neural correlates associated with attentional bias modification, offering deeper insights into its cognitive and emotional impact.
This study has several limitations. First, as an exploratory study, it involved only 12 participants (3 boys). Thus, caution must be exercised when generalizing our findings to the broader high school student population. Second, because of the absence of a control group, the results might have been influenced by the expectancy effect. Future studies should address these limitations by including control groups, balancing sex proportions for accurate comparisons, and expanding the sample to include different age groups (to investigate whether DPT exerts varying effects across age ranges). Lastly, although this study collected both self-reported anxiety levels and physiological indicators, the physiological measurements were only taken five days before mid-term exams. Future research should consider measuring closer to stress events to more accurately assess the impact of dot probe task on physiological changes caused by exam stress. This approach will help to better understand the practical application of dot probe task and enhance its utility in clinical and educational settings.