Abstract
A total of 67 male and female university students were exposed to high and low population densities and high and low levels of information overload induced by means of a perceptual-cognitive detection task. Measures of state anxiety and perceived crowding were subjected to a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial analysis of variance. A significant density × sex interaction was found for anxiety, with females being more anxious than males. Density main effects also indicated a significant relation between density and perceived crowding for both sexes, but information overload failed to significantly affect the perception of crowding. Implications of these findings are discussed in the light of current research on anxiety and crowding.
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This research was supported by a publication grant from the Brandon University Behavioral Science Research Fund to the second author. Requests for reprints should be addressed to J. L. Walker, Department of Psychology, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba R7A 6A9 Canada.
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF03394564.
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Burch, M.A., Walker, J.L. Effects of Population Density and Information Overload on State Anxiety and Crowding Perception. Psychol Rec 28, 207–214 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394528
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394528