writing execrise can reduce exam stress!

A SIMPLE writing exercise can relieve students of exam anxiety and may help them get better scores than their less anxious classmates, a new study has found.
The report to be published in the journal Science today says students who spend 10 minutes before an exam writing about their thoughts and feelings can free up brainpower previously occupied by testing worries and do their best work.
"We essentially got rid of this relationship between test anxiety and performance," said Sian L Beilock, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago and co-author of the study with graduate student Gerardo Ramirez.
Psychologists, educators and parents have known for a long time that the way students perform on a test does not necessarily indicate what knowledge they bring to the table. Test anxiety is fairly common in classrooms, especially in the United States because of its "increasingly test-obsessed culture," Beilock said.

Test anxiety can lead to poorer grades and lower scores on standardised tests and college entrance exams, which can condemn talented students to inferior colleges.
The University of Chicago researchers found that students who were prone to test anxiety improved their test grades by nearly one grade point - from a B-minus to a B-plus, for example - if they were given 10 minutes before an exam to write about their feelings.
The researchers tested their hypothesis with college students in a lab setting and with high school students in the classroom, by first gauging the level of test anxiety and then offering the writing intervention to some students.
The researchers believe worrying competes for computing power in the brain's "working," or short-term, memory. If working memory is focused on worrying, it can't help a person recall all the information his brain stored in preparation for the test. It also affects the working memory's ability to stay focused.
Beilock said the idea for the writing exercise came from the use of writing to combat depression.
Expressive writing, in which people write repeatedly about a traumatic or emotional experience over several weeks or months, has been shown to decrease worrying in people who are depressed.
Beilock believes this research is applicable to all kinds of performance anxiety - from giving a speech to interviewing for a job.
"There's a lot we can do to change how we think about the pressures and thus how we perform," she said.
The next stage of the research project, which is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, will involve a look inside the anxious brain to see how it changes during stressful situations, Beilock said.
She also hopes to develop more interventions to help people perform better during stress. Her lab is looking at how awareness of stereotypes affect the way people perform, such as women and math phobias.

 华语翻译

一个简单的写作练习可以缓解考试焦虑的学生，可以帮助他们获得比他们更好的成绩不那么焦虑的同学，一个新的研究发现。 该报告将在今天发表的科学杂志上说，学生考试前，谁花10分钟左右他们的想法和感受写可以释放脑力以前通过测试的忧虑占据和工作做到最好。 “我们之间的这种本质上有考试焦虑与经营绩效关系赶走，说：”仙L Beilock，在心理学副教授，芝加哥大学和合作与研究生赫拉尔拉米雷斯研究报告的作者。 心理学家，教育工作者和家长都认识了很长一段时间，该方式的学生在测试并不一定意味着什么知识，他们带来的表上执行。考试焦虑是相当普遍，尤其是在教室，在美国，因为它的，“越来越测试痴迷文化，”Beilock说。
考试焦虑可导致贫穷和标准化考试成绩和高考分数较低，可以谴责下高校优秀学生。 美国芝加哥大学的研究人员发现，学生谁容易出现考试焦虑提高了近一个档次点的测试成绩 - 从B -到B减多，例如 - 如果他们得到考试前10分钟写他们的感受。 研究人员在实验室环境中进行测试，并与在课堂上学生的高中与大学生的假设，首先衡量的考试焦虑水平，然后发售的干预，一些学生写作。 研究人员认为，令人担心的计算在大脑的“工作”，或者短期记忆力竞争。如果内存是令人担心的工作重点，它不能帮助一个人记得他的大脑中所有的测试准备存储的信息。这也影响了工作记忆的能力集中精力。 Beilock表示，写作练习写作的想法从打击抑郁启用。 表达写作，写人们在几个星期或几个月反复创伤或情绪经验，已被证明是减少抑郁的人谁是令人担忧。 Beilock认为，这项研究是适用于各种性能的焦虑 - 从发表演说为一个工作面试。 “有很多事情我们无法改变我们思考怎样的压力，因此我们如何执行，”她说。 本研究项目，该项目是由美国国家科学基金会的资金支持，下一阶段将涉及到大脑内急，看看它是如何在压力大的形势的变化看，Beilock说。 她还希望发展更多的干预措施，以帮助人们更好地执行在压力。她的实验室正在研究如何定型的认识影响了人们的动作，例如妇女和数学恐惧症。