Committee Chair

Clark, Amanda

Committee Member

Howell, Ashley N.; Shelton, Jill T.

Department

Dept. of Psychology

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

College students are tasked with juggling a variety of responsibilities. To manage these responsibilities college students must rely on their executive functioning (EF). Executive function refers to cognitive processes that are used to set goals, make plans to achieve those goals, and shift between tasks when necessary. A large portion of college students report experiencing anxiety and anxiety has been theorized to negatively impact cognitive performance, generally. This study sought to explore the impact of anxiety on inhibition and vigilance performance. Participants’ anxiety scores significantly correlated with the number of omission errors made on the inhibition task. Participants also made significantly different amounts of errors of omission on the vigilance task depending on which task was completed first. These findings may inform future research investigating the cognitive phenomena that contribute to differences in anxious and non-anxious people’s performance on tasks of vigilance and inhibition.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my family, particularly my father and mother, for their continued support throughout the past two years of my life. I couldn’t have done this without them and this degree reflects both my commitment to academics as well as their commitment and investment into me. Additionally, the completion of this project would not have been possible without my committee, Dr. Amanda Clark, Dr. Jill Shelton, and Dr. Ashley Howell. Your guidance and support throughout this process remains invaluable to me as I grow into a professional in the field of psychology.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2026

Subject

Anxiety; Cognition; Executive functions (Neuropsychology)

Keyword

Anxiety; Inhibition; Sustained Attention; Cognition; Executive Function

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

xiv, 48 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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