Anxiety is defined as the fear of the unknown. The construct of anxiety incorporates both psychological and physiological components. This study was designed to explore the association between psychometric results and physiological results. The association between perceived effects (i.e., psychological) and actual effects (i.e., physiological) of both helpful and disruptive testing cues also was explored. Nineteen high test anxious (HTA) and seventeen low test anxious (LTA) undergraduate students served as subjects. Statistical results obtained suggest that a difference exists for systolic blood pressure and arterial pulse rate between HTA and LTA subjects. Only the systolic blood pressure revealed a main effect for the treatment (i.e., disruptive and helpful testing cues). Although no treatment main effect was found for arterial pulse rate, results obtained for that measure were in agreement with the predicted values. That is to say, pulse rate was the greatest after the disruptive cues and the lowest after the helpful cues. Pulse rate was reduced after each of the relaxation sessions. Results of comparisons between perceived effects and actual effects revealed a definite association between psychological and physiological response to disruptive and helpful testing cues. As predicted, a signifiant correlation existed among all treatments. Once again, the implication is that if an individual's autonomic responses were elevated they would remain elevated, although the group, both HTA and LTA, fluctuated in response to those treatments. (Author)