Exam Nerves: A Multimodal Biopsychological Investigation.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A study of the relationships between sympathetic nervous system arousal state, non-invasive biomarkers of stress, sensory profile, and test anxiety scores in healthy undergraduate students exposed to mock evaluative stress.
IRAS ID
135372
Contact name
Alison Bratt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Resrearch Services, University of Kent
Research summary
The proposed study aims to investigate the relationship between how people think they react to the stress of academic examinations, (the psychological effects of being tested), and how they actually physiologically respond to a brief mock test experience (the psycho-evaluative stress stimulus). This study will be conducted using adult undergraduate students as consenting participants, with the mock evaluative stressor being the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), (Kirschbaum et al., 1993), in which participants have to give an oral presentation in front of an audience. Individuals traits of responding to different types of sensory stimuli will also be surveyed and correlated with their physiological response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). This is conducted to try to elucidate any factors which predispose certain people to detrimental test stress. Biological markers of stress responding, salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase will be analysed over a time course following the mock test stress to determine which marker is most accurately predictive of a high response to stress.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/1216
Date of REC Opinion
11 Oct 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion