Abstract
This study was to examine the effect of visualization strategy (VIS) on speech anxiety. Seventeen high social anxious subjects were randomly devided into two experimental groups. The contingency group (CON, n=8) were given a short discussion with three interviewers. The non-contingency group (N-CON, n=9) were requested a short presentation in the presence of three audiences. Both two groups had VIS training session between pre and post test session. HR change and subjective ratings of feeling were measured as the indices of anxiety. The main findings were as follows. (1) In both groups, the effect of VIS couldn't be observed on HR change. (2) On subjective ratings, VIS had a manifest effect on reducing anxiety. (3) Especially, the greater decreament of anxiety could be observed in N-CON. These results suggested that the visualization was effective in reducing subjective ratings of speech anxiety in the self-presenting situation which the level of contingency was more lower.
