INTRODUCTION

1. Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS), was previously used for evaluation of the levels of trait anxiety in a cohort of 176 medical students, who attended second year of Medical school. 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 A A A A 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 V V V V 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 ATTENTION AND LEARNING IN MEDICAL STUDENTS WITH HIGH ANXIETY SanjaMancevska, JasminaPluncevic-Gligoroska, BetiDejanova, SuncicaPetrovska, LiljanaBozinovska Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine,University “Ss.Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje, FYR MACEDONIA Logo Here INTRODUCTION SUBJECTS RESULTS • Many reports show that high levels of anxiety have negative effects on cognitive performance in people. Low and moderate levels of anxiety are connected to better cognitive performance during different experimental designs(1). • High rates of high anxiety, depression and other signs of psychological burden have been well documented in medical students • The academic achievement of medical students depend on efficient cognitive performance, especially on the ability of learning (2). • The mechanism underlying the facilitating or attenuating effects of anxiety on performance have not been cleared yet (3). • Here, we investigate and evaluate the speed and the efficiency of the learning process in subjects with high anxiety levels. • Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) (4), was previously used for evaluation of the levels of trait anxiety in a cohort of 176 medical students, who attended second year of Faculty of Medicine . • Mean TMAS score ≤ 10 was a criterion for entering the low anxiety group (LA). • Mean TMAS ≥ 16 was a criterion for the high anxiety group (HA). Fig.3. Values of Learning Efficiency Index (LEI) for correct recognition of the patterns in the P-R Test LEI - Learning Efficiency Index; LA – low anxiety; HA – high anxiety; P- pattern; 1-8 - different types of patterns DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION • Students with high trait anxiety levels showed significantly higher number of incorrect recognitions, longer duration of the test and a lower index of learning efficiency then students with low levels of trait anxiety. • It could be concluded that : • 65% of medical students in their early stages of education, show high levels of trait anxiety. • Medical students with high levels of trait anxiety show reduced learning efficiency. High levels of anxiety have negative impact on the attention and cognitive processes. RESULTS METHODS Fig.1. Distribution of high anxiety levels in a cohort of medical students attending second year of Medical school • The Pattern Recognition Test (P-R) is a computerized psychological test, a modification of the Continuous Performance Test, in which sustained attention, memory and the learning process could be evaluated. • It consists of 8 patterns, comprised of different combinations of binary numbers 1and 0, divided in two classes (A and B). • During the first presentation of the test objects, the subject should memorize the connection between a numerical pattern and a certain class. • During next iterations, a correct recognition of the class (A or B) of the presented numerical pattern should be made REFERENCES 1. Aronen ET, Vuontela V, Steenari MR, Salmi J, Carlson S. Working memory, psychiatric symptoms and academic performance at school. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2005; 83 (1): 33-42. 2. Chandavarkar U, Azzam A, Mathews C. Anxiety symptoms and perceived performance in medical students. Depress Anxiety 2007; 24: 103-11 3. Eysenk MW, Santos R, Derakshan N, Calvo MG. Anxiety and cognitive performance: attentional control theory. Emotion 2007; 7 (2) 336-53. 4. Taylor JA. A personality scale of manifest anxiety. J Abnorm Soc Psychol 1953; 48: 285-90. Fig.2. Correlation between the brain rate values and the QEEG spectra ADHD subtypes. AKNOWLEDGEMENT We wish to thank to Dr. Adrijan Bozinovski from American College , Skopje and Prof. Stevo Bozinovski from Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, USA for their valuable contribution in developing and the design of the P-R Test. * p< 0.05 M – mean number of mistakes (false recognitions); I – mean number of necessary iterations; D- duration of the test (seconds) until completition of correct recognitions; LEI - Learning Efficiency Index; LA – low anxiety; HA – high anxiety CONTACTS sanjamancevska@gmail.com jasnapg65@yahoo.com Society of Applied Neuroscience (SAN) Meeting 2011, 5-8 May, Thessaloniki, Greece