Non-adaptive Persistence in High Worriers: When Hard Work Doesn’t Pay Off

However, few prior studies have examined this potential relation. The present study investigated whether high worry participants had greater difficulties in performing on, and persisting with, a difficult task.

We also explored whether they exhibited a general deficit in attentional control capacity. Participants (N = 75) completed measures of trait worry and of both behavioural and subjective attentional control and were asked to complete a difficult task (N-Back task, 3-Back variant), with an option to quit early. Bayesian linear regressions were used to assess the relationships between worry and N-Back task persistence, performance and attentional control.